MIGRANT workers and refugees in Malaysia are more vulnerable to mental stress and tend to commit suicide due to the lack of moral support, activists said.

The situation is made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic, especially when loss of income caused a big impact on their mental state, they said.

North-South Initiative executive director Adrian Pereira said during the pandemic, foreigners affected by mental stress and driven to the point of committing suicide were mostly married and who had financial problems.

He said the foreigners who fall under this category were aged between 26 and 45.

He said the Nepalese Embassy in Malaysia last year revealed that 284 Nepalese workers died in Malaysia in 2020, and of that number, 46 were due to suicide.

In 2019, 49 foreigners committed suicide out of a total of 298 deaths, and in 2018, it was 45 out of 347 deaths, he said.

“For locals, moral support and lifelines such as BefriendersKL and the Health Ministry are more accessible. It is not the same for these foreigners and refugees,” Pereira told The Malaysian Insight.

“For this group, telling other people about their problems is still a taboo and there is the language barrier.

“It causes them to be more closed and suffer mental stress to the point of committing suicide.”

He said the death toll of migrant workers and refugees due to suicide may also be higher than reported and could be seen to be increasing since the pandemic.

“The plantation sector and domestic workers are among the two sectors that experience the most mental stress due to working without holidays, workplaces in remote areas, crowded hostels and living space and a lack of public facilities,” he said.

“As for security guards, they work 12-hour shifts and have short toilet breaks, and they are prevented from complaining about it.”

He also said alcohol addiction and fights were also the cause of deaths in addition to diseases such as tuberculosis, liver problems and dengue.

He said migrant workers who were isolated and lived away from the general public provided opportunities for employers to exploit and breach their contracts.

From the experience of dealing with hundreds of cases, Adrian said the management of foreign workers, especially those with contract status and those without official documents, was often done by a third party through subcontracting.

He said it was common for these third-party supervisors to use physical force to prevent employees from raising questions, making reports or requests such as time off or overtime pay, as stated in their contracts.

“It indirectly gives (third-party companies) the authority to manage the workers in their own way, without liability to the company,” he said.

“So the company always escapes (from action).”

Pereira said most employers were also reluctant to pay more or hire more workers to fulfil the work shifts because it would increase costs.

He said most foreign countries such as Nepal and Indonesia list a number of conditions in the standard contract for Malaysian employers who want to hire their nationals.

“They are supposed to work eight hours a day and six days a week,” he said.

“Workers are given at least eight days of annual leave, 14 days of sick leave and 60 days of leave a year if they are hospitalised.”

But these are usually ignored.

Stressed refugees

For the Alliance of Chin Refugees, the pressure faced by refugees as a result of not being able to work formally and the lack of access to public facilities has also resulted in suicide.

“Without giving refugees the right to work in Malaysia formally, they are always living under pressure,” a spokesman of the refugee group said.

“This is more so with those who already have families, just like the case of a Myanmar refugee who committed suicide after throwing his three children off the Middle Ring Road 2 in Kuala Lumpur recently.

“One of the children was treated in the intensive care unit while the others died.”

The spokesman said the authorities, especially the Immigration Department, should stop raids on refugee settlements, which directly put mental pressure on them.

“Refugees are regularly detained in Immigration raids and this has caused great fear while severely affecting their freedom of movement. Even having a UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) card does not guarantee that they will not be caught by the police or Immigration personnel,” he said.

“Loss of jobs, inability to support their families or pay rent and lack of a safe route to seek asylum are some of the reasons refugees resort to suicide.

“Not only do they not have the right to work but they also cannot access affordable healthcare and structured education for their children.”

Under international law and humanitarian principles, the spokesman said, the government is responsible for guaranteeing the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. – August 29, 2022.