Thang Khan Thawng (62) hailing from Chin state, Burma died at his rented house in Kaula Lampur after he came back from the UNHCR office on June 4.

"He was depressed. Before he died he told me of his disappointment with the UNHCR and the way it dealt with his case," Mrs. Vum Khaw Hnian (48) wife of Thang Khan Thawng told Khonumthung News.

Thang's body was taken to Kuala Lampur hospital where the doctors diagnosed that he died of a heart attack coupled with hypertension and asthma.

Thang Khan Thawng made an appeal to UNHCR that his wife Vum Khaw Hnian be included in his refugee card on January 8 this year. Since then Thang Khan Thawng was queuing up outside UNHCR office for 34 days waiting for his application for family inclusion to be processed till the day he died, according to another Burmese refugee in Malaysia.

Thang died leaving his son Tuan Hau Mang (17) and his wife Vum Khaw Hnian in the rented house without anybody to take care of them.

"Our family is now in serious trouble. There is nobody to help us. I am also not feeling very well. My son is under 18. He can't do anything," Vum Khaw Hnian lamented.

The UNHCR office is said to have told Vum Khaw Hnian and her son Tuan Hau Mang to submit a new application for a refugee certificate, Vum Khaw Hnian said.

In Kuala Lampur there are around 20,000 refugees from Chin state, Burma who have not been registered by the UNHCR.

Human rights abuses, forced labuor and religious persecution by the Burmese junta in Chin state forced thousands of people in Chin state to leave their homeland and take refuge in neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh and India. – Khonumthung.