Malaysia has asked the U.N. refugee agency to temporarily stop registering new refugees in the country, as it builds a domestic system to manage asylum-seekers, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Background

According to the UNHCR, there were about 215,600 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with the agency in Malaysia at the end of February, more than half of them ethnic Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar.

The move to halt registrations would allow the UNHCR to focus on re-settling refugees in third countries, if they cannot be repatriated to their home nations. The Malaysian government plans to implement its own refugee registration programme, known as the DPP, which it launched in January.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni said the suspension would enable the government to manage data in a more structured manner, including in identity verification, monitoring and regulation, without relying entirely on the records of any foreign entity.

There has been a rise in online hate speech and misinformation targeting the Rohingya in recent weeks, with social media users accusing them of taking jobs and land away from Malaysians.

The Malaysian office of UNHCR did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The agency said on its website that Malaysia’s refugee policies, including the DPP programme, “reflect an important step towards a structured, predictable, and nationally owned approach to protecting people forced to flee their country” and that UNHCR’s work was “complementary to and in support of the state’s protection and humanitarian responsibilities.”

Lukanisman said plans were also underway to deport approximately 5,000 Myanmar nationals detained in the country’s immigration detention centres by naval vessels, subject to Myanmar’s agreement.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.