A ONE-YEAR amnesty for undocumented migrants to come forward and get tested for the coronavirus is among measures needed if Malaysia hopes to get the pandemic under control, said experts.

Current measures, such as arresting undocumented migrants or getting foreign workers to pay for their own tests, are self-defeating and would drive them further away.

Putrajaya must also stop the racism being fuelled online towards refugees and stateless people, said experts in public health and economics.

This is because the atmosphere of hostility and bigotry is helping the virus spread even faster among migrants, who fear coming forward for voluntary tests or when they get symptoms.

New clusters among migrants will eventually spread to locals and lead to the virus’ resurgence, said public health experts.

Their suggestions come on the back of a rise in cases among the country’s migrant community, estimated to be between three and four million, including documented and undocumented workers, refugees and stateless people.

Yesterday, the Health Ministry said 49 of the 67 new infections were foreigners, while the day before, 45 out of the 54 new cases were migrants.

Poor planning, poor public relations and poor conception of basic human rights have characterised Putrajaya’s approach towards migrants, said Dr Fifa Rahman of Unitaid, a global health initiative.

“You can’t do well in the coronavirus fight and yet treat migrants differently and not respect their human rights. This needs to be remedied,” said Fifa, who sits on Unitaid’s executive board.

Another pressing area of concern is a lack of medical aid and testing in migrant detention centres, which can be coronavirus hot spots, she said.

“In detention centres, there is one medical assistant for hundreds and hundreds of people, and they are overworked and undertrained.

“Custodial medicine is very weak in Malaysia and we don’t want to go through the Singapore experience,” she said, referring to the spike of new virus cases in the republic traced to migrant workers.

Civil society groups have slammed the government for flip-flopping on its earlier decision to suspend raids on migrant workers in the initial stages of the movement-control order.

A week later, hundreds of undocumented migrants were arrested in swoops on apartment complexes in the Masjid India enclave in Kuala Lumpur.

Civil societies said such raids will drive more undocumented migrants underground, where they will be nearly impossible to reach if an outbreak occurs among them.

Economist Prof Jomo Kwame Sundaram said the government should have instead offered a one-year amnesty to undocumented migrants to get them to come forward and get tested.

“We also sent the wrong signal that they have to pay for their own testing. We have suggested an amnesty, so if they come forward, they can get a one-year work permit,” said Jomo, who is senior adviser to the Khazanah Research Institute.

“They live in cramped conditions, where it is especially likely for the virus to spread.”

Health systems expert Dr Khor Swee Kheng said there are public health and health diplomacy reasons for Malaysians to treat migrants fairly.

“In a nation state, if we can stop people from coming in, we still have the responsibility to care for everyone within the borders. We are only as strong as the health of all the people within Malaysia.”

Infection clusters among migrants will eventually endanger Malaysian citizens.

On the diplomatic front, Malaysia should step up to show moral authority as a moderate Muslim country, at a time when Western countries are losing their credibility when it comes to the pandemic, he said.

“We should step up – for moral, legal, and religious reasons – as this will provide us with the moral high ground when we need additional acts of health diplomacy in future.” – May 11, 2020.