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Refugees and their children may soon have the opportunity to start their lives better here in Malaysia.
This is because the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organization (MAPIM), a coalition of more than 200 Muslim NGOs, has drawn up a plan to build a secondary school for refugee teenagers.
MAPIM President, Azmi Abdul Hamid, said a refugees’ future would continue to be bleak unless given proper education.
“One thing that people always feel with refugees is a strong feeling of trepidation.
“But there will always be displaced people among us, no matter what we do. There’s really only one choice for us.
“If we handle refugees properly and orderly, they have every potential to be a productive human resource asset for Malaysia,” he told TRP in an interview.
He said refugee children deserve the chance to discover their talents and skills.
When they grow up, he added, they can make important contributions to the national economy.
However, MAPIM needs around RM4 million to build the school and are also still looking for generous donors to provide them with the land on which to build it.
The school will accommodate some 100 students and MAPIM hopes it will be built by 2025, estimating that it will cost around RM30,000 each month to operate.
Thanks to the generosity of the public, at present, MAPIM is running 11 primary schools for some 600 child refugees throughout the country.
The child refugees are mostly from the war-torn countries of Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan.
“We don’t expect any financial assistance from the government. However, we hope the Education Ministry will recognise the refugee schools. This will make it easier for us to get qualified teachers to teach,” he said.
As of 31st October 2019, there are 177,806 refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia, based on United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) data.
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