KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — Months after the nation was hit by its worst-ever flood crisis, many among Kelantan’s Orang Asli community still remain homeless, with no clear hope of ever rebuilding their lives, according to a report by Al Jazeera.

In a news feature by the international broadcaster, journalists reported seeing Orang Asli families forced into tents or makeshift bamboo and tarpaulin shelters by the roadside in Gua Musang when they visited the town in February.

While the flooding cut the mountain Orang Asli villages off from the outside world for a month, it was even more devastating to the villages in the valley, the article on Al Jazeera’s website said.

The journalists also noted few signs of reconstruction.

According to Al Jazeera, the Orang Asli don’t know when or even if their houses will be rebuilt, and that the lack of formal deeds to their land may make it difficult for them to receive compensation or financial aid.

However, Mohamed Thajudeen bin Abdul Wahab, secretary of the National Security Council, maintains that there has been “no major issue in aid delivery.”

“In fact, there was an overabundance in supply of food sources. It is not true that people didn’t receive enough help,” Thajudeen was quoted telling Al Jazeera.

He said the government would not rebuild houses along riverbank areas due to the risk of future flooding, and that the reconstruction of 400 houses was already under way, and is expected to be finished by June.

“Being poor, most of them are squatters and do not own land,” said Thajudeen.

“They were squatting on land not belonging to them. As such again, the government couldn’t rebuild these houses.

“As land was a state matter, not a federal matter, the federal government [has] had to wait for the state government to identify suitable land for reconstruction of these houses.”

But Colin Nicholas from the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC), an NGO that assists in legal cases and advocates for Orang Asli rights, told Al Jazeera the government has left it to NGOs to provide services for several Orang Asli villages hit by the floods.

Dendi, an Orang Asli youth leader from Kuala Wok, a village in the mountains of Kelantan, expressed disappointment at the government’s response.

“Sometimes, the government close their eyes, close their ears,” he said. “They don’t care about Orang Asli.”

The floods that struck the east coast of peninsula Malaysia late last year were the worst in the country in decades, displacing hundreds of thousands from their homes.