ABSTRACT
Urban refugees in Malaysia have increased steadily in the past decade due to a range of push and pull factors. The Southeast Asian region continues to deal with conflict and resultant displacement as well as being a quasi protection space for other displaced peoples from further afield. A growing Malaysian economy has, largely, been able to accommodate a transient cheap labour force made up of irregular immigrants and asylum seekers/refugees and provide them with some economic stability. There remain severe human rights and refugee rights issues as Malaysia does not recognize refugees legally nor provide material support to them. Immigration raids and police harassment continue to cause anxiety and distress to many refugees. For most urban refugees, the only hope lies in resettlement, which remains a faint hope for most, even though resettlement numbers from Kuala Lumpur continue to rise, making it the biggest resettlement post within UNHCR in 2013. Consequently, many refugees and asylum seekers have made Kuala Lumpur their home, a difficult task when few services (such as education and health) are available to them and they may have vast distances to navigate across the city in a difficult, foreign and often hostile terrain.
