By Salai Za Uk Ling

24 Dec 2006 - Kuala Lumpur: Signs of festivities are everywhere as Chin refugee community in Malaysia prepares for festive celebrations. But hundreds of them will be spending this year’s Christmas in detention centers across Malaysia. More than 500 Chin refugees and asylum seekers are languishing in Malaysian jails and detention centers after being arrested for immigration offences. Detainees range from young single males to entire family members; to mothers and pregnant women to children as young as three years old.

Just last week, 43 Chins were arrested during an immigration raid in a construction worksite near Singaporean border in government’s ongoing operation against “illegal immigrants.” Mr. Peng had been working in the site for more than one month to support his wife and two young children before being arrested in last week’s sweep. Like other recognized refugees in the country, Mr. Peng is not legally permitted to work in Malaysia. Last month, he found a menial work in a construction site in Jahor, more than three hundred kilometers away from Kuala Lumpur where he and his family live. He took the job there, though it meant having to leave his family alone. He needed to earn extra money for the family this Christmas. He and his family are awaiting resettlement in a third country and were recently interviewed for relocation in the United States. His plan was to come back to Kuala Lumpur to spend Christmas with his family, but he is now being detained with dozens of his co-workers and is facing prospects of prolonged detention and even deportation. His wife and two children are now spending this Christmas without Mr. Peng.

Read more at the Chinland Guardian