Some of the Muslim refugees from Burma have been in Malaysia for 20 years.Community activists believe that several thousand more have arrived in the past year-and-a-half, fleeing anti-Muslim violence in the state of Rakhine.Most of them are from the Rohingya ethnic group.But other Burmese Muslims, who are not Rohingya, said they too had no choice but to make the perilous sea journey to Malaysia.Raahimah Nur Boshur said some of her relatives were killed when a mob burnt down her village.There was no way we could stay.The only way we could save our lives was to leave the country, to escape anywhere.We lost everything, she said.The recent influx is straining the community's already limited resources.Muslim charities help out with food donations.And the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, provides various aid and issues the asylum seekers cards identifying them as refugees.But Malaysia has not ratified the U.N. convention on refugees, leaving these people in a legal limbo.They are unable to send their children to state schools or work legally.Social activist Irene Fernandez said this made them extremely vulnerable.They are deemed to be undocumented by all enforcement agencies.
