MORE than 20,000 foreigners, a majority of them undocumented migrants, have been vaccinated against Covid-19, thanks to the efforts of the Red Crescent Society (PBSM) and Our Journey, a civil society organisation.

The drive to reach undocumented foreigners and inoculate them began in early September, a PBSM spokesman told The Malaysian Insight.

“Of that number, a majority of them have no valid travel documents and are from Indonesia, Myanmar, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Iran.”

The work is recognised by the government but is carried out by civil society groups as undocumented migrants fear arrest by the authorities.

Putrajaya, too, has made conflicting statements previously, on how undocumented foreigners will be handled. Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin said that healthcare workers at vaccination centres must notify security forces if undocumented migrants showed up for their jabs, while Health Ministry Khairy Jamaluddin promised no action would be taken against them.

“These illegal immigrants and refugees will be more comfortable if the vaccination centre (PPV) is run by groups that have provided them with health services. They will not be afraid to come to the PPV to be vaccinated.

“That is how we have been able to inoculate more than 20,000 of them,” the PBSM spokesman said.

Not all vaccinations were carried out at a PPV. There were times when the teams carried out the work at migrants’ homes, surau, and even under coconut trees.

The hardest part of the work was to get the right list of names, he added.

“Typically, a community leader will do the work of ensuring the names and number of people who need the vaccine.

“This is time consuming and the person collecting the names has to be one who is known and trusted by the migrant community.”

PBSM and Our Journey, a group that works with undocumented migrants, also had to ensure social distancing was observed when administering vaccines, especially when they went to homes and private spaces.

Another challenge was language, whereby the teams had to engage volunteers from different migrant communities to act as translators.

“They translate to help the doctors and to explain procedures to the migrants, as well as what to do after getting the vaccine,” he said.

Our Journey director Sumitha Shaanthinni Kishna said the group will continue to reach as many migrants as possible.

“We are grateful that the communities and their leaders are spreading the word to others to get registered for the vaccine.

“At the initial stage, we faced problems registering foreigners who do not have official documents needed in order to register in the MySejahtera system.

“We have now managed to solve this by registering them with identification from their country of origin, a local community card or by creating an ID that can be accepted by the authorities,” Sumitha told The Malaysian Insight. – December 3, 2021.