Visa ban on Aussie farm workers is unfair, unwise

 

From Murray Hunter

The Pakatan Harapan opposition has weighed in on the Australian farm work visa ban announced by human resources minister M Saravanan, urging him to review his decision.

PKR’s Selayang MP William Leong issued a press release stating how incorrect the reasons given by Saravanan were to justify the ban.

Over the last few days, there has been a barrage of anger, frustration and disappointment from Malaysians on social media over this issue.

On the FMT’s Facebook page, readers have been complaining about being denied the opportunity to better themselves.

The ability to work legally on farms in Australia would have allowed Malaysians to earn enough to send home to their families to assist them during these difficult economic times.

Local work alternatives for unskilled Malaysians include night jobs as security guards, Grab or Foodpanda delivery staff, or working away from home on palm oil plantations for salaries of little more than RM2,000 per month, hardly enough to provide for a family, in many cases an extended one.

Figures from Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection show Malaysian nationals made up the largest group of unlawful non-citizens in the country in the last financial year.

Nearly 10,000 Malaysians were recorded as having overstayed their visas in 2016-17.

Inquiries found that there is a general mix of Malaysians who have overstayed their visas, and applied for asylum in Australia on political and religious grounds.

The Australian Asean farm workers visa scheme accorded both the Australian and Malaysian governments a way to put a stop to the significant number of Malaysians working illegally in Australian farms under exploitative conditions.

Australian migration agent Robert Chelliah, with branches across several Asean countries, had strong comments on the ban.

Chelliah said “the Malaysian human resources minister Saravanan has missed a golden opportunity to help the Malaysian citizens with his knee-jerk and short-sighted decision in vetoing the Australian farm visa scheme”.

Chelliah went on to explain that the scheme would help Malaysian farmers and farm workers to upskill their farming practices and learn from experienced Australian farmers on all aspects of integrated pest control methods, sustainable farming practices, healthy soil maintenance, agricultural food safety processing and packaging methods, and meat and dairy food processing methods.

These skills are very valuable in highly competitive markets and our farmers and farm workers would be well paid to acquire these modern farming techniques.

Sabah agriculture and fisheries minister Jeffrey Kitingan should have a say in this decision as the state is emerging as a strong base for horticulture. The Australian chemical-free horticulture safe food production is a hallmark that Malaysians could learn a lot from.

Given the increased unemployment of Malaysians under the current Covid-19 situation, the scheme accords a lifetime opportunity for some unemployed citizens, farm workers and farmers accessing this visa scheme to earn as much as RM12,000 to RM15,000 a month.

This would enable some of them to return to Malaysia financially better off after their short period of temporary work.

It would appear that Malaysians are being deprived of their human right to pursue work opportunities abroad – at a time when Malaysia has just been elected as a member of the 18-seat United Nations Human Rights Council. - FMT

Murray Hunter is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.