Ongoing Malaysian crackdown
House Committee on Foreign Affairs to further investigate possible rights violations against undocumented Filipinos in Malaysia

Migrante Sectoral Party Chairperson Connie Bragas-Regalado today lauded the House Committee on Foreign Affairs for "taking up the ongoing Malaysian crackdown on undocumented migrants as an emerging major concern of the House of Representatives."

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Antonio Cuenco took credence to the MIGRANTE presentation of the previous Malaysian crackdown in 2002 that told of inhumane deportation procedures and torture of undocumented Filipinos to be deported during the said Committee's public hearing yesterday.

"The presentation showed that any crackdown was, is, and never will be a humane procedure as what the Department of Foreign Affairs would want the public to believe. The ongoing crackdown this time may prove to be a lot worse with the news blackout in Malaysia regarding the hunt for undocumented migrants, Regalado said.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Jose Brillantes tried to dispute the MIGRANTE leader's statements to no avail.

"How can Usec. Brilliantes dispute our data? Estimates of the Philippine government and various non-government organizations in the region place the overseas Filipino populace in Malaysia at 712,104 workers. As of December 2004, only 213,000 are considered by the Malaysian government to be legally employed, while the rest are undocumented workers (499,104)" Bragas-Regalado said.

Migrante had earlier stipulated "that all the jails and penitentiaries were filled to the brim even before the crackdown that started on March 1. The Malaysian government is seeking out vacant houses and buildings to place undocumented workers it has seized from factories, plantations, restaurants, clubs and construction sites."

"The 560,000-strong People's Volunteer Corps (also called Relas) who are tasked to implement the crackdown will be rewarded 80 ringgits (P1,144) per undocumented migrant arrested. The Relas have not been trained in humane arrest procedures, respect for human rights and international humanitarian law. Hence, the crackdown is highly open to abuse of authority and due process will not be observed," Bragas-Regalado said.

"Those Filipinos who are undocumented will be subjected to arrest, a minimum 14-day detention, caning and deportation. Those who entered as documented workers but have overstayed will not be caned. But there are no procedures on how to distinguish between undocumented workers and overstayers and those who ran away from abusive employers," she added.

There were also media reports that those who opt for legalization of their status must pay up to 3,000 ringgits (P42,900) to the Malaysian government.

However, Rep. Cuenco demanded that Migrante provide the names of the Filipinos who were tortured or caned saing that "these are very serious allegations. You are accusing the Malaysian government of subjecting our people to torture and caning. You better provide the committee with names so that we can look deeper into this."