The UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur can register up to 300 refugees a day. Due to a 15 000 backlog from previous years the official line at the moment is that UNHCR KL has suspended registrations except for the most vulnerable cases which amount to some 400 per month. However they will resume registration once they’ve managed the substantial backlog they currently have.
On a noraml day here we’ll have about 100 to 150 refugees coming for interviews, acceptance counselling or rejection counselling (meaning they are not going to get status as a refugee), medical checkups, departures to resettlement countries and any other matter that is of concern for them.
I am mostly in charge of doing preparing-interviews with those who are being submitted for resettlement in Australia. This means that I will conduct these interviews more or less on a weekly basis. The week after the preparing-interviews I will escort the refugees to the Australian High Commisioners office for their interviewss there, and afterwards I’ll bring them to one of KLs public hospitals for a full medical check. After this my work with the refugees are mostly done as they have to wait for the Australian HC to make their decison about wheter the refugees will be offered resettlement in Australia or not.
In between interviews I do a lot of updating on the refugees personal files as circumstances has a tendency to change. Every meeting, interview and any new information on the refugees has to be updated in their files. I think we currently have some 60 000 files here.
Later on during my internship here I’ll get to do the actual Resettlement interviews which takes about an hour or so. I’ll also have the chance to go out on outreachs, meeting refugees in their communities to talk to them, interview them and do a general check on how they are doing. Hopefully I’ll also get to do some interviews in detentioncamps and prisons.
So as you see I get to do a lot of different things at work, which is great as I want to see and learn as much as possible. I really enjoy my work at UNHCR. I have fantastic colleagues which I have a lot of fun with and who also gives me a helping hand when things get a bit confusing 🙂
The days goes on by rather quickly. I have been here just three weeks now, but I feels like I have been here much longer. I feel home in so many ways… Like I say, my home is where ever I am 🙂
Lots of love, T.
artig å les kordan dæ går! du har litt å hold på mæ gitt..du e flink!!
nuss å kos frå oss!!
Tjena stumpan! ÅH så spännande det låter, vi måste höras via mail! Sköt om dig! Kramar!