NEWS RELEASE - February 16, 2005
References: Connie Bragas-Regalado, Chairperson, 259-1145 & 0927-2157392
Vince Borneo, Information Officer, 0927-7968198

With Malaysian crackdown on March 1, undocumented Filipinos face arrest, torture,

"An extension of the amnesty period is not even a palliative to the crisis facing the Philippine government on the 500,000 undocumented Filipinos up for inhumane deportation in Malaysia. It will merely move the date of the brutal crackdown on undocumented migrants back by a few days."

Malaysia will crack down hard on illegal immigrants, including thousands of Filipinos, starting March 1, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday after talks with the visiting Indonesian president.

The new deadline, which could see hundreds of thousands of illegal workers jailed, whipped or deported, will mark the end of an amnesty which has twice been extended at Indonesia's request. The Philippines had also sent a lobby group to extend the deadline.

Mr. Abdullah made the announcement at a joint news conference with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after the two leaders held a private meeting followed by discussions with their ministerial delegations.

"The soft operation to advise illegals to return home will continue until the end of February. We hope by then, all illegals will return home," Mr. Abdullah said.

"Because from March 1 we will crack down on the illegals. We hope we will not have to carry out the tough operation."

The planned crackdown, which will involve more than half-a-million officials and civilian security force volunteers in a nationwide sweep, has been widely criticized by human rights groups which say it would be open to abuse.

Mr. Abdullah said Malaysia would continue to employ Indonesians as long as they were in the country legally, and would introduce a new system to fingerprint all foreign workers to ensure that illegals were weeded out.

"I thank Malaysia for allowing Indonesian workers to work in Malaysia," Mr. Yudhoyono said. "This surely helps them to earn an income and also their contribution helps in the development of Malaysia.

Before the amnesty began on Oct. 29 last year, Malaysia estimated there were more than a million illegal workers in the country, mostly from Indonesia but also from the Philippines, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

Nearly 400,000, mostly Indonesians, left without facing any penalty during the first three months of the amnesty. But others have remained, clinging to jobs in the construction, plantation and service industries in the face of unemployment at home.

Thus declared the MIGRANTE Sectoral Party on the recent announcements of officials from the Departments of Labor and Employment and Foreign Affairs that "Malaysia had extended its amnesty program for undocumented migrants for another week"

"Philippine labor and foreign affairs officials in have already admitted that "it is impossible for the government to handle the situation if the 500,000 undocumented Filipinos in the Malaysia, - of which 170,000 are in Sabah - are deported and made to return to the Philippines almost at once. Government should instead initiate all diplomatic means to prevent human rights violations against undocumented Filipinos in Malaysia," MIGRANTE Sectoral Party Chairperson Connie Bragas-Regalado said.

Malaysian authorities were set to crack down on undocumented migrants starting Tuesday, a day after its January 31 deadline of its amnesty offer expired. Malaysia has extended the amnesty thrice already. The December 31 deadline was moved following the December 26 earthquake and tsunami tragedy. The deadline was first extended from Oct 29 in conjunction with the Indonesian President's inauguration.

"The crackdown will seek out undocumented migrants who will be subjected to jail time and six cane whips before they are deported. The Malaysian government has given partial police power to the 560,000-strong Peoples' Volunteer Corps that will be rewarded 100 ringgits (P15,000) per undocumented migrant arrested. Besides, no official government declaration from Malaysia has been transmitted to our shores of any plan to avert the crackdown," Bragas-Regalado said.

Mahadi Arshad, director-general of the People's Volunteer Corps was quoted by Agence France-Presse in Malaysia as "awaiting the green light to launch the nationwide crackdown."

Migrante fears a repeat of a similar incident in 2002, when babies of undocumented Filipinos died in cramped ships that were used to send them home.

Most of the undocumented Filipinos in Malaysia hail from Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Zamboanga, Lanao, and other far-flung areas that are among the nation's poorest provinces plagued by war.

"We call on the Malaysian government to stop the crackdown and respect the human rights of migrants in Sabah and all of Malaysia. The Macapagal-Arroyo government must take appropriate policy and practical measures to attend to the upcoming crackdown that will victimize hundreds of thousands of undocumented Filipinos in the plantations, construction, entertainment and restaurant industries," Bragas-Regalado said. #