Another 68 Syrians arrive in Malaysia
SUBANG JAYA: Sixty-eight Syrian migrants have arrived here to make Malaysia their temporary home until the situation in their conflictcountry normalises.
The group, consisting of 18 families with 31 children as young as seven months, arrived on a chartered plane at the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) base in Subang at about 11am yesterday.
Their bags in tow, the migrants departed the plane to applause from ground staff, non-governmental organisations and others.
Among those welcoming the Syrians were Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi andWomen, Family and Community Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim.
“The presence of our brothers and sisters from Syria today renews our commitment, as put forward by our Prime Minister last year, to help solve the problem in Syria and in other Middle Eastern countries now,” Dr Ahmad Zahid said in a short ceremony.
He stressed that the migrants were being housed in Malaysia on a temporary basis and that they would be issued a temporary pass and relevant documents to stay here until Syria’s situation stabilises.
Dr Ahmad Zahid said the Syrians would be issued temporary work permits to allow the adult migrants, some of whom were engineers, doctors and lecturers, find work here.
The children would be issued students visas to study in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools and in universities.
“They will be housed in a condominium unit in Setia Alam, with families allocated a three-bedroom apartment each,” he said.
Private companies have contributed towards ensuring the families’ welfare for the duration of their stay here.
At the United Nations General Assembly in New York last year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that Malaysia would open its doors to 3,000 Syrian migrants over the next three years to help alleviate the refugee crisis.
About four million Syrian refugees have fled to neighbouring countries since the start of the civil war there in 2011. Malaysia received 11 Syrians in the first batch of arrivals in December last year.
Dr Ahmad Zahid said Malaysia targeted 150 Syrians to be brought in for the second batch, but had to narrow it down to 68 after some did not pass health or security checks.
He also suggested that some migrants had chose not to come to Malaysia because they had “the wrong perceptions” of the country.
“Malaysia is not the United States or Europe, so maybe that is why they did not want to come. Maybe they don’t know that we are a peaceful country with a caring Government and nation,” he said in his speech.
He said Malaysia was targeting to bring in another 200 Syrians during the Ramadhan and were in the process of screening migrants in the Bekaa Valley Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon.