Kuala Lumpur: Over 70 Arakanese refugees staged a demonstration on Monday in front of the UNHCR office in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, calling for immediate attention to their plight as unregistered refugees.

Saw Than, a spokesperson, said that they were facing arrest by authorities as well as lack of food and shelter due to neglect by the UNHCR in Malaysia.

"More than 300 Arakanese refugees are in detention camps for over a year, and many others, including us who had applied for refugee status since 2008, are still being ignored by the UNHCR. We are now facing arrest by the Malaysian authorities and lack food, shelter and medical assistance," he told Narinjara over telephone.

"We feel we are also being discriminated against by the UNHCR here because it has recognized so many other ethnic people from Burma as refugees since 2008, but not a single Arakanese are among those [refugee] registrations," he also said.

Narinjara attempted to contact the UNHCR office in Malaysia over telephone but was unable to reach anyone.

Saw Than added that the demonstration lasted for nearly one and-a-half hours and was peacefully concluded, when Mr. Mikael, the UNHCR Malaysia Registration Officer, promised to consider their demands as soon as possible. The list of protesters present was also taken by the UNHCR and the local police.

According to the Arakan Refugee Relief Committee based in Kuala Lumpur, over 10,000 Arakanese refugees are currently sheltered in Malaysia after fleeing persecution at the hands of the Burmese military regime. However, very few of them have been registered as refugees by the UNHCR office in Malaysia.