A GROUP of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has expressed deep concern that the government has not announced any Covid-19 measures to address undocumented workers in Malaysia and called for a general, time-limited amnesty and moratorium on enforcement raids by all agencies on migrant communities to help stem the virus.
“We note that according to official figures, there are over four million undocumented workers in Malaysia. Many cases of abuse of foreign workers have been documented in Malaysia. Who doesn’t believe that undocumented foreign workers work long, exhausting hours for low pay? Worse, many have been jobless for nearly two weeks now and will continue jobless for much longer,” the NGOs said in a statement.
The NGOs are: Eliminating Death and Abuse in Custody Together (EDICT), Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia (SABM), Concerned Lawyers For Justice (CLJ), and TENAGANITA.
According to the statement, public policy measures such as Movement Control Orders have resulted in immense hardships for foreign workers. But the impact has been mitigated by feeding programmes initiated by many NGOs.
“But that is not enough, because for tracing and isolation measures to work, foreign workers must be included as members of the infected and likely-to-be-infected members of the population.
“Since they are undocumented and subject to penalties under Malaysian immigration laws, it is only natural that over four million persons in our population will not seek testing or treatment,” the statement said.
The NGOs expressed further concern that Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said on March 23 that foreign workers must pay for testing and for treatment in Malaysian hospitals which would have caused foreign workers to take special measures to avoid detection and treatment.
“We are concerned that the announcement by the prime minister will lead to undetected cases and result in uncontrolled spread of Covid-19,” it said.
Covid clusters
“We are also concerned that police lockups and immigration detention centres may become clusters of Covid-19 cases if arrestees are not screened before they are “mixed” with prior detainees. All public servants who are in contact with the arrestees will be exposed to the virus!”
The statement called for a time-limited amnesty on illegal immigrants. “We are calling for actions to ensure that undocumented persons have safe passages to seek medical help and to survive.
Announcements of such actions must be widely disseminated,” it said.
The statement added that formulation and communication of the amnesty requires careful thought and urged that NGO representatives and public officials be consulted before the amnesty is finalised, announced and disseminated.
“We further urge the home minister to announce what actions have been taken to filter arrestees and to care for detainees and staff of detention centres who may be exposed to the Covid-19 virus,” the statement said. – March 29, 2020
