KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 2 — Putrajaya has not finalised details of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s offer to accept 3,000 Syrian refugees, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today.

He clarified that Malaysia has not received the refugees, but said that Najib’s offer made at the United Nations General Assembly has been accepted.

"We have not gone into the details yet. We are thinking of working with the private sector to help place them, give the refugee children an education and also to provide temporary jobs until they are able to return to Syria.

"We will try to facilitate them based on our immigration laws and other measures which are to be announced here," he told reporters today after the Special Asean Ministerial Meeting on the Rise of Radicalisation and Violent Extremism (SAMMRRAVE).

Ahmad Zahid, who is also home minister, added that Putrajaya will issue a special identification card, "iKad", to the refugees to further help facilitate their documentation here.

"Usually the UNHCR will work with the International Organisation of Migrants (IOM) to issue cards for the refugees that enter Malaysia.

"This time, we will issue iKad for the refugees, which among others will have security elements embedded into the card for the use of the Immigration Department," he said referring to the United Nations Human Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Ahmad Zahid also emphasised that the aid given to the Syrian refugees was on "humanitarian grounds" and not motivated by race or religion.

He cited the example of accepting Bosnian refugees from the Bosnian Genocide in the 1990s, many of whom he said were now global ambassadors for Malaysia’s efforts.

Roughly four million Syrian refugees have fled to neighbouring countries since a civil war broke out there in 2011.

Many have been victims of human trafficking trying to leave the war torn country for better living conditions.