Arakan News Agency
Thousands of asylum seekers and refugees who have survived the life-threatening journey from Myanmar are finding themselves trapped in a new cycle of poverty and ignorance in Malaysia.…
In Kuala Lumpur the only way some can make money is by picking up trash that can be recycled or sold.
“We earn about 30 to 35 Ringgit [$1] per pay. It is not enough for our family,” said Muhammad Hassan, a Rohingya man who arrived by boat just a few months ago.
Asylum seekers are not allowed to work or go to public school in the South-East Asian nation.
Many refugees and asylum seekers are forced to work in the “informal sector” or “grey market”.
In Kuala Lumpur that means groups of Rohingya men scour the streets collecting cans, plastic bottles and other trash.
But $1 per day does not go very far when you need to buy food, clothes and pay for rent.
Muhammad Hassan, a Rohingya asylum seeker from Myanmar, said life in Malaysia was “very difficult”.
“We are very unhealthy, and uneducated and poor people,” he said.
“If we cannot work here, as refugees, how can we survive?”
The families of the men working together collecting garbage also live together to reduce costs.
At least three families live in a two-bedroom flat the ABC visited, and the family may be forced to stay in these cramped conditions for years.
Source :abc
