UNHCR urged to implement security features on its cards

JITRA, March 20 — The Home Ministry has urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to implement security features on its cards.

The ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Seri Alwi Ibrahim said, it was necessary to prevent UNHCR cards from being forged arbitrarily by immigrants and those claiming to be refugees.

“We at the ministry have the Immigration Department conducting constant enforcement together with the police to check whether their documents are genuine or not.

“But as of recently, there is the issue of refugees using forged UNHCR cards. So we will be working with the UNHCR to determine whether the cards are genuine or not, he told reporters after officiating at the Distinguished Service Award Ceremony of Malaysian Prisons Department North Zone 1, here today.

He was responding to media reports regarding the misuse of UNHCR cards, by using forged cards, to get jobs in the country.

In the meantime, Alwi said the dependence on foreign workers may be reduced by training and developing skills and aptitudes of prison inmates in various fields. This will help fill the void in manufacturing, agriculture and other employment sectors.

“Some 99 per cent of the 21,124 inmates who completed their rehabilitation programme outside prison from 2008 to 2015 managed to get jobs and last year’s statistics show that only 0.34 per cent went back to crime,” he said. — Bernama