The Human (In)Security of Syrian Refugees in Malaysia

Ahmad Sharif Haron, Mohd Irwan Syazli Saidin () and Zarina Othman
Additional contact information
Ahmad Sharif Haron: Centre for Research in History, Politics and International Affairs, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia
Mohd Irwan Syazli Saidin: Centre for Research in History, Politics and International Affairs, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia
Zarina Othman: Centre for Research in History, Politics and International Affairs, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia

Social Sciences, 2023, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: The ongoing Syrian conflict has resulted in millions of refugees fleeing the country since 2011. In 2015, the Malaysian government pledged to host 3000 Syrian refugees to continue their lives safely in Malaysia before returning to Syria when the war ends. However, Malaysia has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, which serves as an international treaty that recognises refugees’ status and protects their rights. Due to the non-existence of a legal framework to protect refugees and externally displaced persons, this article argues that human security threats are very likely to be faced by Syrian refugees in Malaysia, despite the implementation of the Syrian Migrant Temporary Settlement Program (PPSMS) by the Malaysian government. Through qualitative research and in-depth interviews with selected government officials, Syrian refugees and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the analysis in this article revealed that there are major security concerns that have impacted existing Syrian refugees in Malaysia, which can be viewed from different interdependent human security dimensions, such as political, economic, health and social security.

Keywords: human security; NGO; PPSMS; Syrian refugees; Malaysia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/6/317/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/6/317/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:6:p:317-:d:1155921

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().