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KUALA LUMPUR (IPS) — After years of living as a stateless person in constant fear of the authorities, 42-year-old Abdul Jaffar, a Rohingya from Burma's Arakan state, can now breathe easily.

No longer does he need to hide beneath a bridge every night, away from the eyes of the immigration police, and neither does he need to work without proper documents.

A change in state policy in November has made him a 'person of recognised concern' in Malaysia. This means Abdul's refugee status given by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has been recognised by the Malaysian government.

Malaysia's Home Minister Azmi Khalid said the government had made a "firm decision" in recognising the refugee status of the Rohingyas.

Khalid told reporters it was better for the children of the Rohingyas to be educated rather than "wandering around and becoming a liability."

"I don't have to hide anymore. I can seek a proper job and even start a business. Above all, I finally have an identity as a human being that is recognised by the Malaysian government," said an elated Abdul when IPS met him at the Pudu wet market in the city where he works clearing rubbish.

"Because I had no papers, I had no identity and so I was a non-person. You would never know what it is to be a non-person in a foreign country," said Abdul who arrived here in 1992, overland from Thailand.

Abdul was arrested and deported nine times — not to Burma because Rangoon does not recognise him as a citizen, but to Thailand. Each time from Thailand, he has played a cat-and-mouse game with authorities along the Thai-Malaysian border, and crossed over into Malaysia.

The minority Muslim Rohingyas have often been referred to as Burma's forgotten refugees and have often come under torture by Burmese troops, after having their land confiscated by the predominately Buddhist Burmese authorities. Many Rohingyas, too, have been pressed into forced labour by the army.

By the end of 1992, about 250,000 had arrived in south-eastern Bangladesh, bordering Arakan, where the government placed them in more than 20 camps around the town of Cox's Bazar. Some also escaped to Malaysia and Thailand.

"Each time I was deported to Thailand, I re-entered Malaysia illegally the next day. But now I can stay here without any fear," Abdul said confidently.

Some 10,000 to 15,000 Rohingyas — nobody really knows the true numbers — are in a jubilant state like Abdul. Their recognition as refugees entitles them to Malaysian identity cards that in turn allows them to live, work and educate their children without harassment and returned to Arakan when the situation permits.

Although Malaysia has not ratified the 1951 U.N. Convention on Refugees, a government official told IPS that Kuala Lumpur had cooperated with UNHCR and non-governmental organisations in considering the plight of the Rohingyas.

"The government's move in recognising the Rohingyas and allowing them to stay is part of this consideration," he said. "It is a temporary humanitarian measure until the situation in their country improves."

Most Rohingyas live a hard life either begging on the streets or working as rubbish collectors, cleaners and labourers — jobs that start at midnight and end when Malaysians wake up, making them 'invisible' to the public.

"Recognition also means we can move out of the squatter colonies into low cost housing," said Jaafar Ahmad who runs a small centre helping Rohingyas speak out for better treatment.

Himself a Rohingya, Jaafar runs a website, gives interviews and had tried hard to get refugee status both from the UNHCR and the government. (END/Copyright IPS)