MAY 21 —As violence escalates in Rakhine in recent years, there has been an unprecedented surge of Rohingya refugee women and children fleeing their homeland to Malaysia via Thailand.
Under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hejar Abdul Rahman of the Department of Community Health, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), preliminary results of a research on Rohingya refugee women and girls who have arrived in Malaysia highlights a range of general reproductive issues that are of concern, including: sexual abuse, domestic violence, unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), undetected breast abnormalities, severe malnutrition, migraine, and prolonged cough.
From our findings, Rohingya women and girls received limited health care services in their home country. In fact, many resorted to consultation with traditional healers, giving births at home with the help of their mother-in-law or traditional birth assistants, and quoted fear to access public health care services due to discrimination.
Many Rohingya are forced out of their villages due to ethnic and religious violence and uncertainties in concentration camps. In fact, the main motivating factors that their families have sent girls and women away to Malaysia in recent years is due to rampant sexual abuse and violence by authorities guarding their villages and camps, in which they quoted were “no longer unsafe to continue living there”.
Additionally, during their journey escaping, respondents shared that men and women are segregated in illegal camps at the Thai-Malaysia borders and the latter faced higher risk of exposure to sexual abuse due to a period of isolation from their husbands or men from the same village. This exposes young girls and women to sexual abuse, exploitation, and rape during their journey to Malaysia that adds on to pre-existing health morbidities. Many wives who were raped refused to open up to their husbands for fear of abandonment.
In terms of health care, the challenges that Rohingya women and children have to endure do not end upon gaining entry illegally to Malaysia after paying for ransom.
Undocumented asylum seekers face equal challenge in getting basic health services. The recent change in Malaysian health policy implemented on foreigners includes subsidy reduction and a directive for health providers to inform the police if a patient does not have valid documentation, i.e. passport or UNHCR card. This has deterred undocumented female asylum seekers from availing themselves to the public health care system due to exorbitant charges and fear of detention. Therefore, many resort to getting treatment from already heavily crowded non-governmental organisation (NGO) operated clinics in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.
Although this policy aims to reduce the burden of the local health care system, it is now more important than ever to explore alternative strategies as a region to ensure the sexual and reproductive health needs of undocumented refugees and asylum seekers are met.
Displaced women and girls of reproductive age, as well as children are vulnerable to health morbidities, disability, and even deaths due to the lack of access to health, especially sexual and reproductive healthcare (SRH) services in emergency situations such as quoted above. However, although basic access to healthcare, including SRH services are a critical need and a right to all, these services are not always prioritised or easily available.
In this article, we intended to highlight three issues. Firstly, it is our concern that after being rescued and/or while detained in detention centres in Malaysia and Thailand, basic access to healthcare, including sexual and reproductive healthcare services should be made available, especially to undocumented female asylum seekers or irregular migrants. These services should include antenatal and post-natal care, emergency contraception, post-exposure prophylaxis, and treatment for STIs to meet the reproductive health needs of all, especially girls and women at risk.
Secondly, leaders of both sending and receiving countries of the recent irregular migration phenomena must recognise this as an urgent regional security issue and humanitarian crises instead of responding as though this were an immigration issue.
Harsh detention and deportation policies without prior investigation on valid humanitarian needs will only endanger individuals who have legitimate claims as asylum seekers to be deported home where their lives are threatened. This will not work as a deterrent against future migration and trafficking.
Thirdly, as Malaysia experiences funding cut due to: our transition from developing to a developed nation and to meet other regional priorities, we plead to funders to acknowledge post-emergency crisis interventions and programmes as relevant priority in the South East Asia region, as this is a cross border humanitarian and security issue that concerns the lives of many innocent men, women, and children that has been on-going for the past 20 years.
This year, as we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, there are still more than 50 million people forced to flee their homes due to conflict in other parts of the world, the largest number seen since the WWII. As Malaysia Chairs ASEAN this year, it is our hope that a first step is taken to address the Rohingya humanitarian crisis as a regional security issue to prevent more innocent women and children from this suffering and burden that they certainly do not deserve.
*Juliana Ooi volunteers with the Selangor & Wilayah Persekutuan Family Reproductive Health Association (SWP FReHA) and advocates for universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
