Malaysian crackdown on illegals affects Lankan migrant workers
View(s):Malaysia has launched a crackdown from September 1 to arrest, detain and deport hundreds of illegal workers in a decision that would impact on many Sri Lankan workers.
Kuala Lumpur-based TENAGANITA Women’s Force says that over 100,000 refugees who lack any legal protection in Malaysia may also be arrested, deported and detained in the country’s biggest ever crackdown.
In Colombo, groups involved in migrant rights’ issues say that this move is unprecedented as it does not provide for these migrants to even prepare for their repatriation. “Even the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia offered an amnesty and an amnesty period for those migrants who were overstaying with a reasonable deadline. This is very clearly a violation of one’s human rights because not all overstaying migrants are doing so at their will. Most are even unaware of the consequences and yet their host employers are getting work out of them disregarding the consequences to the migrants. Some could very well be waiting for their unpaid wages without any legal support,” one activist said adding that this would impact on many Sri Lankans working as plantation factory workers overstaying their visas.
TENAGANITA, in a statement, said that crackdowns on migrants have become a disturbing and worrying feature in Malaysia. “There seems to be a cycle for such operations, but it is also a reflection of how the Malaysian government has treated migrants and failed to respond to or act on human rights concerns raised continuously by both national and international parties,” it said.
Many of these migrants live in continuous fear and in conditions of human trafficking or forced labour. One worker told Tenaganita, “My four year old daughter asked her mother what I looked like. I have not seen her since she was a baby. I cannot return home as the agent holds my passport and I do not know if I have a work permit”.
These are the testimonies of migrants who have been cheated in Malaysia, and it reflects the all-too common reality of how Malaysia has driven migrant workers into conditions ripe for exploitation, TENAGANITA said.
The KL rights group urged the global community to respond strongly, and for source countries to impose a moratorium on sending its citizens as migrant workers to Malaysia.
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