Show proof Myanmar nationals a ‘financial burden’, home ministry told

 Former MP Charles Santiago also asks if the community is more of a 'security threat' than undocumented migrant workers.

Charles Santiago, co-chair of Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights, said transparency and independent scrutiny have become ‘even more urgent’ with the repatriation of Myanmar nationals under way. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA:

A former DAP MP has challenged the home minister to furnish proof that Myanmar nationals were a “financial burden” or a “security threat”.

Charles Santiago said the home ministry should reveal how much public funds are spent on the wellbeing of Myanmar nationals and list the security threats supposedly posed by the community.

“Malaysians deserve evidence,” Santiago, a former three-term MP for Klang and the co-chair of Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights, said in a statement.

Yesterday, the ministry claimed that the lapse in managing asylum-seekers in Malaysia, particularly those from Myanmar, has led “to a huge financial burden on the country”.

The ministry said the lapse has also triggered a serious social crisis and “introduced a real security threat” in Malaysia.

This follows the repatriation of about 1,500 Myanmar nationals, including children, yesterday, as part of a refugee repatriation programme.

The group is the first of 5,000 Myanmar nationals Malaysia says have agreed to “voluntary” repatriation from detention centres.

Santiago also questioned if the Myanmar nationals were more of a threat than the two million undocumented migrant workers who have arrived in the country in the last 20 years.

He said his call for the home ministry to back up its claims was not about asking Malaysia to abandon immigration enforcement or national sovereignty.

“It is about insisting that national sovereignty and the rule of law must operate alongside due process and evidence,” he said.

Santiago, who has been a vocal advocate for migrant rights, said now that repatriation has begun, transparency and independent scrutiny have become “even more urgent”. - FMT