With Malaysian crackdown on March 1
Migrante meets with Amnesty International, Malaysian and regional NGOs to finalize contingency campaign for migrants facing arrest, torture and deportation

Migrante Sectoral Party Chairperson Connie Bragas-Regalado today departs for Hong Kong to confer with heads of non-government organizations to finalize a contingency campaign for 500,000 undocumented Filipino migrants who face arrest, torture by caning and deportation in Malaysia starting March 1.

Ms. Regalado will be meeting with officials of the Amnesty International-Asia Pacific Regional Office, Tenaganita (Women's Force) of Malaysia and the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) to map out the final campaign to protect the rights of all undocumented migrants in Malaysia.

According to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi "the Malaysian government will crack down hard on 1.2 million undocumented migrants," who come mostly from Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

Migrante, Tenaganita, APMM, Amnesty International and other human rights groups in the region have called on the Malaysian government to stop its planned crackdown, which will involve more than 560,000 officials and civilian security force volunteers in a nationwide sweep.

The new deadline (March 1), which could see hundreds of thousands of illegal workers jailed, cane-whipped and deported, will mark the end of an amnesty which has twice been extended at Indonesia's request.

The Migrante Sectoral Party has said that the 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 only moved the date of the brutal crackdown on undocumented migrants back by a few days.

The Hong Kong meeting will tackle the conditions of undocumented migrants who are clinging to jobs in the construction, plantation and service industries in the face of unemployment in their home countries. The said consultation shall also strengthen coordination among the concerned groups in Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines with regard to the looming humanitarian crisis with the crackdown in Malaysia.

Philippine labor and foreign affairs officials 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. Both the Malaysian and Philippine government have not done any measures to prevent human rights violations against undocumented Filipinos in Malaysia.

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.

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.

Migrante has also called on the Malaysian government to stop the crackdown and respect the human rights of undocumented migrants of Malaysia. #