Immigration raids failed to nab real culprits, says NGO

Undocumented workers being rounded up in a recent raid by immigration authorities.

PETALING JAYA: A human rights organisation has denounced immigration authorities for their failure to punish what it calls the “real culprits” behind the issue of undocumented foreign workers.

Labour agents and employers are among the culprits, according to North-South Initiative director Adrian Pereira.

Speaking to FMT, he said it was appalling that the recent immigration raids had ended up only with the punishment of thousands of foreign workers.

He said there were many ways migrant workers could become undocumented, including through mistreatment by agents or employers.

“There are no investigations into how the migrant workers became undocumented, and this will perpetuate forced labour and human trafficking in Malaysia,” he added.

He alleged that some employment agents would commit contract substitutions, resulting in the failure of workers to get what was promised to them.

Due to a lack of remedies for foreign labourers, he added, they would sometimes be left with no choice but to run away, thus becoming undocumented.

In the case of forced labour or unpaid wages, he said workers whose complaints fell on deaf ears would often flee towards safer work opportunities.

“But by law, such a worker will be deemed undocumented since he does not have a new contract or a permit with the new employer.

“By punishing the migrant worker, the government is giving impunity to the many actors who are causing the migrants to become undocumented.

“It is a violation of natural justice to not investigate how migrants become undocumented.”

Pereira repeated his call for amnesty to undocumented migrants.

He said those wanting to return to their home countries should be allowed to do so safely and those interested in continuing to work in Malaysia should be offered participation in a rehiring programme.

He added that both initiatives should be directly managed by the home ministry and not through agents.

He noted that a rehiring programme in 2016 saw many migrants failing to get legal migrant worker status even after they had forked out large amounts of money for the registration.

“No one knows what the real reasons for this were, but many of the migrants paid a lot of money to the agents, some up to RM8,000.”

He urged the home ministry and National Security Council to work closely with migrant rights NGOs in order to resolve the issue of undocumented migrants. - FMT