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Life as Afghan Refugees, depicted on Malay Stage
Popular Parastoo Theatre group gives voice to the refugee experience. BANGKOK – Live at this year’s Refugee Fest in Malaysia is Parastoo Theatre group. In the Dari language of Afghanistan, “Parastoo” means swallow bird. “They are birds who fly and never find [a] home,” said Saleh Sepas, playwright and director of Parastoo Theatre in Malaysia.…
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Airport Asylum Seekers Find Freedom – Southeast Asia Dispatches
BANGKOK – In the past year Southeast Asia provided temporary shelter to two asylum seekers from the Middle East fleeing persecution. Hassan Alkontar and Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun plead for asylum from Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok airports. They were resettled to Canada. But this has led to a backlash online in Malaysia, Thailand, and Canada — where…
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Malaysia’s Rohingya Refugee Women’s Theatre Company
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Inside a YMCA gymnasium, an actress takes the stage and the audience goes quiet. Members of Malaysia’s state security forces are in attendance. The scene set is a family living room. An actress mimes as if to clean. There’s nothing subversive in this scene. A male actor steps on stage looking…
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Malaysia: A Refugee Conundrum
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – “People always ask me, why are you helping refugees when there are people, here at home, who need help? “This is home for refugees”, said Heidy Quah, recipient of the 2017 Queen’s Young Leaders Award for her work co-founding Malaysia’s Refuge for the Refugees. Quah, aged 23 years, founded the Kuala…
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Malaysia: A Rohingya safe haven?
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Inside a television studio a small team of four prepare the daily news bulletin featuring horrendous stories of rape, murder, forced exile, and the lack of an international response to these crimes. But this is no ordinary television news station. It’s fully staffed by Rohingya refugees broadcasting online, sharing news and…
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Adam Bemma 