20^th JUNE 2023

Dear Chief Editors,

                                                   PRESS STATEMENT

WORLD REFUGEE DAY 2023: HOPE AWAY FROM HOME. A WORLD WHERE REFUGEES ARE ALWAYS INCLUDED.

Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHROM) call upon United Nations, World Leaders, Civil Society organizations, Faith Based Organizations, Community Based Organizations, and the International Community to increase efforts to end conflict, war and genocide and continue their support to all refugees around the world particularly in building our resilient to face various challenges as refugees living in exile while waiting for a durable solution to come.

As refugees living in exile, our basic rights are always compromised. We dont have rights to work legally, we face lack of access to education and treatment as well as threats to our security. Since Covid-19 pandemic, we have faced a massive wave of hate speech and xenophobia which resulted in refugees receiving threats, physical abuse, harassment, and defamation which put our lives at risk and jeopardized our physical health, mental health, and well-being. This made our lives more difficult and challenging.

As hate speech and xenophobia continue to haunt refugees and migrants, we call upon everyone to put a stop to it as the consequences are horrible and unbearable. We applaud the move made by the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) in partnership with the office of the speaker of Malaysias House of Representatives (Dewan Rakyat) for launching a Toolkit for Parliamentarians to Promote Counter Narrative to Hate Speech Towards Migrants and Refugees in Malaysia on 8^th June 2023, in the Malaysian Parliament. We would like to work closely with APHR, Parliamentarians, government agencies, civil society organizations, faith-based organizations, community-based organizations, media, students, universities, public and the international Community to counter narrative to hate speech in the country and globally.

The Rohingya continue suffering from the impact of Rohingya Genocide in Coxs Bazar refugee camps and in transit countries. The Rohingya in refugee camps are already struggling for basic needs on a day-to-day basis on top of other problems in the camps. Cutting the food aid will make their situation worse. This will force them to flee the camps and there will be more Rohingya who will fall into human traffickers hands. There will be more women forced into prostitution and there will be more children who becom...