This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on November 17, 2015.

PUTRAJAYA: Putrajaya will filter the refugees it plans to welcome from Syria in light of last Friday’s Paris terrorist attacks which killed 129 people.

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed acknowledged that there were risks in accepting refugees from the Middle East.

“That is why we have been taking our time to basically filter out who we want to take and preferably those [who] have a clear background,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby yesterday.

Last Friday’s coordinated attacks at restaurants, a concert hall and a stadium in Paris saw shootings, suicide bombings and hostage situations which also resulted in 352 wounded, 99 of them critically. Militant group Isis has claimed responsibility.

French police reportedly found a Syrian passport beside the body of one of the perpetrators, fuelling fears that terrorists were among the current refugee exodus heading towards Europe.

While stressing that all Syrian refugees should not be tainted in the same light, Nur Jazlan said stringent background checks have to be placed to ensure they pose no threat to the country.

Malaysia recently announced plans to accept 3,000 Syrian refugees over the next three years, but had stated that it preferred professional and semi-skilled people.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi previously said the home ministry was working out the procedure for refugees to move to Malaysia.

Nur Jazlan said no one should be surprised by the latest attacks on Paris, especially after the attacks on French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in January.

He said authorities were finding it increasingly difficult to monitor and stop new terrorism activities, which involved small cell groups, but were capable of inflicting massive damage.

“Terrorists like Isis can create devastation at tremendous levels. Their attacks are huge, but they only need a few people.

“So we monitor, even if it’s 20 people we will look at them, what more if there are thousands. But the most important thing now is to identify who has the potential to be a terrorist and we take action on them before they make an attack,” he said.

He said the authorities were constantly monitoring all forms of communication to find out if anyone had been recruited or interested in Isis-type activities.

He added that Malaysia had taken decisive action, either by arresting these people or placing them in deradicalisation programmes. — The Malaysian Insider