Rohingya, UN step up efforts to get Malaysia refugees screened for virus

KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 (Reuters) - The U.N. refugee agency
and Rohingya community leaders in Malaysia are stepping up
efforts to get refugees who attended a Muslim gathering to come
forward for coronavirus checks, after cases linked to the event
jumped across Southeast Asia.
More than 670 infections in the region have been linked to
the gathering last month at a mosque on the outskirts of the
Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. A total of 16,000 people of many
nationalities attended the four-day event.
Reuters reported on Thursday that authorities were trying to
track down an estimated 2,000 Rohingya who had attended the
gathering. Rights groups said "several hundred" Rohingya
attended and that the overall estimate included other refugees,
such as ethnic Burmese Muslims. Refugees are considered illegal immigrants in Malaysia and
activists say they may fear coming forward for testing.
"We have increased awareness and have advised the Rohingya
to get tested," said Bo Min Naing, president of the Rohingya
Society in Malaysia, estimating that 400-600 Rohingya attended
the gathering.
He has been sending voice messages to fellow Rohingya on the
coronavirus and urging them to get tested if they attended the
Feb. 27-March 1 gathering.
Rights activist Lilianne Fan said leaders of the Burmese
Muslim community living in Malaysia have agreed to get
participants of the mosque gathering to present themselves for
testing, though some "do fear arrest and other repercussions".
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on its
website it had requested the government not to arrest any
refugee or asylum seeker without documents or with expired
documents as the agency had postponed all appointments, amid
two-week movement curbs in the country to contain the spread of
the virus.
Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The UNHCR has also written to community leaders and urged
them to get all refugees who participated in the mosque
activities to immediately contact health authorities without
fearing arrests, the leaders said.
Around 4,000 of the 14,500 Malaysia residents who attended
have yet to be screened for coronavirus, the government said on
Thursday.
There were 1,500 other participants from countries including
Brunei, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and
the Philippines.
"As you can imagine, given the circumstances where the
healthcare systems are over-stretched at this time, we have not
received any official notifications of refugees and
asylum-seekers who have been infected or who have been tested,"
UNHCR Malaysia told Reuters in an email.
Malaysia has 900 coronavirus cases in all, the highest in
Southeast Asia, 576 of them linked to the mosque event.