Kuala Lumpur – A Rakhine (Magh) staff working as an Interpreter at an ACTS (A Call-To-Serve) Free Medical Clinic at Batu Arang in Rawang city of Selangor state has been racially discriminating against Rohingya Refugee patients and misinterpreting their statements.

The interpreter going by the name ‘Ms. Loreal’ is a Rakhine woman pretending as a Chin Ethnic Refugee and has been working at the clinic for three years. They are said to be a member of a Rakhine group with four to five members targeting Rohingya refugees visiting to the Clinic and sometimes on the referrals of UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).

“There are some Rohingya refugees referred to the clinic by the UNHCR. There are some that visit the clinic on their own. However, the interpreting Rakhine woman misinterprets the patients say which renders them without having proper medical services. But she does help her own Rakhine people to have maximum medical services at the clinic.

Sometimes, there are some International Visitors that visit the clinic to observe the situations. But the Rakhine woman always misinterprets and distorts what the patients.

When they ask the Rohingya patients questions like ‘what your ethnic identity is, where you are from or why you came here,’ they answer like ‘Rohingya, from Arakan state of Myanmar or because of the violence’ respectively. However, the woman always misinterprets their answers into English something like ‘Bengali, from Bangladesh or illegally entered Myanmar and lived there or left the country because of economic reasons etc.’

This is nothing but politicizing and racializing the free humanitarian services provided the medical clinic. This is nothing but working against the ethical standards of the clinic where she and her COs has been working for so long,” says a victim who recently visited the clinic in Batu Arang, Rawang, Selangor.

However, the visiting Rohingya refugee patients have very good words to say for the doctors in the clinic and the Director of the ACTS, Rosemary Chong.

“The doctors in the clinic treat us very well. And Ma’am Rosemary is also very kind. Sometimes, she gives advices her stuffs not to treat the Rohingya refugees badly saying that because of the Rohingya refugees, the locals treat other refugees very well.

So, we have nothing bad to say against the free medical services but against those staffs with bad working behaviors and ethical standards. We want our voices heard by the world through this media platform,” he continued.

The clinic in the report is called ‘ACTS PERCH 1’ located nearby a Police Station at: D1530, Jalan Simpah Utara, Batu Arang, 48100 Rawang, State of Selangor DE.

Similar misconducts against the visiting refugee patients or their caretakers by the Receptionists/Interpreting Staffs of ACTS’ Brickfields KL Branch have also been reported.