“I hope Malaysia will be successful. I understand concerns of some that normalising working rights will make more of them come, but I frankly don’t think that is a significant risk,” he told the media after visiting the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)-Tzu Chi Education Centre: Harmony, here today.

Woodhouse, who met Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi yesterday, also praised Malaysia’s strong commitment in supporting the resettlement process to countries like New Zealand.

Zahid recently announced that Malaysia would be providing training in semi-skilled areas to about 56,000 Rohingya who are UNHCR cardholders, and was looking into allowing the group to obtain employment.

Woodhouse is here on a two-day working visit starting yesterday as part of a New Zealand immigration mission to interview refugee cases who have applied for resettlement in New Zealand.

Asked if Malaysia’s efforts would help to entice New Zealand into taking in more Rohingya for resettlement, Woodhouse said he was looking at the development with “interest”.

New Zealand is one of 26 countries, which take part in the UNHCR regular resettlement programme. Since the Second World War, New Zealand has resettled over 33,000 refugees.

The country has an annual refugee quota of 750, of which about 15% are Rohingya refugees based in Malaysia. From 2005, New Zealand had resettled 1,997 Myanmar refugees from Malaysia, including 277 Rohingya.