SOME 150 civil society groups and activists have sent a petition to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin urging the government to stop its raids on undocumented foreign workers and focus on curbing the Covid-19 virus instead.

This came after Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin had said the government would crackdown on undocumented migrant workers purportedly for the purpose of vaccinating them.

In a virtual press conference today by the People’s Health Forum, representative and panellist Lim Chee Han said Hamzah’s statement has created the perception that the government intends to arrest and detain undocumented migrants on a massive scale over a short period of time.

The petition – Stop the operations to arrest undocumented migrants, focus on the goal of controlling the spread of Covid-19 – was signed by think tanks, rights groups, political parties and prominent individuals.

“We view the current approach of arresting and detaining undocumented migrants at this time as complicating the efforts to fight the pandemic,” Lim said.

He said there is a strong possibility that the crackdown will result in new Covid-19 clusters in Immigration detention centres.

“This will increase the spread of Covid-19 in undocumented migrants and will also infect immigration officers, police officers and court staff (who are involved in remand application), as well as their family,” he said, adding that this should be avoided.

Lim said these operations intimidate migrant workers, regardless of documented status, adding that they will avoid any civil servant and it may force them into hiding.

“This will defeat the government’s efforts to create herd immunity in Malaysia, which requires vaccination for 80% of the population including the migrant community.”

He said failure to reach the 80% level will delay the country’s economic recovery and extend the suffering of the people.

Lim also pointed out the Immigration Department does not have the capacity to arrest and repatriate the 2-3 million undocumented migrants in Malaysia.

He said, according to estimate by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, as of July 1, 2020, Immigration detention centres with a capacity for 12,530 detainees are overflowing, reporting as many as 15,163 detainees within their walls.

“Besides which, more than 95% of undocumented migrants are working and contributing to the national economy,” Lim said.

Yesterday, the authorities raided a construction site and detained 156 undocumented migrant workers, who were taken to Semenyih Immigration detention centre.

Immigration authorities said the detainees will be screened for Covid-19 before their respective embassies are notified, adding that the detainees will then be deported.

This resulted in an outcry by civil society groups and activists who said the timing for this was wrong, as the country was in the middle of battling the pandemic and such operations will only worsen the situation.

Two other panellists at today’s forum, Irene Xavier of Persatuan Sahabat Wanita Selangor and Muhammad Faisal, president of Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia, said ad hoc responses such as raids will only continue to deny the migrants of a comprehensive system that can protect them from abuse in all forms.

“We will continue to react the same way if we don’t implement and enforce a comprehensive system for our management of migrant workers,” Irene said.

She said the country has laws that are supposedly aimed at protecting migrant workers but it has weak enforcement and therefore leaves the migrant community vulnerable to exploitation.

The civil society groups, activists as well others involved in the petition are hoping that the prime minister will bring this issue to the National Security Council for a more appropriate and integrated approach towards handling undocumented migrants.

“At this point of time, we should focus on the goal of controlling the spread of Covid-19 in our country.

“Other goals are secondary and should be postponed if they conflict with the primary goal that is to control and overcome the spread of Covid-19,” they said. – June 8, 2021.