KUALA LUMPUR: Seputeh member of parliament Teresa Kok said the Education Ministry should allow refugee children to enrol in government schools, with support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its education partners.
She said the proposal was contained in the Committee's Report on Refugee Management in Malaysia, which was debated in the Dewan Rakyat today.
"I fully support this UNHCR proposal, and I hope the Education Ministry will take appropriate action on it so that we do not end up with a group of young people without citizenship status growing up in our country without being able to read and write," she said.
Kok said, according to UNHCR figures cited in the report, Malaysia was home to 214,079 refugees and asylum seekers registered with the agency, of whom about 31 per cent, or 64,224, were children.
