Migrants in the time of the MCO

I recently saw a video of migrants in Bareilly being openly sprayed with disinfectant. It was reminiscent of Room 101 in the book “1984”, where prisoners in the “Ministry of Love” are subjected to their worst nightmare.

In a time of acute hygiene consciousness like this, it’s funny how migrants are treated with the least humanity. The public spraying of these migrants, an almost insect-like treatment, is a reflection of what society thinks of them. Spraying insecticide to ward off the pests. Strong as these words may seem, the conclusion is apparent from the manner in which the migrants were “cleansed”. Ethnic cleansing by Nazi Germany during the holocaust and by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia comes to mind.

One thing is clear: history has not served as a lesson. This is what is happening in India. As for Malaysia, during this movement control order (MCO), one can only guess what circumstances migrants are in. The government has announced an economic stimulus package worth RM250 billion. Naturally and without a doubt, migrants are unaccounted for. They are non-citizens and do not come into this particular picture.

Now, there is no blame to be placed on the government: businesses, the B40, and even the M40 group are themselves at the losing end during the MCO, so the invisible migrants become all the more invisible. This is an unfortunate reality, but the fact remains. A lot of migrants will now not have a source of income.

According to members of Tenaganita, many migrants earn daily wages doing odd jobs (general work at markets and restaurants as cleaners) and will be very much affected during the MCO period (and perhaps even after that). In fact, domestic workers will not have the opportunity to earn income over time. We can only wonder (and that too if we care to) what kind of lives they are living right now.

As it is, most migrants live in kongsis, something that most Malaysians would be unfamiliar with. It is an acknowledged truth that migrants have always been at the mercy of their employers as a lot of them are undocumented. This is not an ideal situation in normal circumstances. During this time of controlled movement, it is simply devastating.

In December 2019, the Malaysian Bar released a press statement saying that the Independent Committee on the Management of Foreign Workers had submitted its report to the government. With the situation in Malaysia now being markedly different, where migrants, undocumented and documented, currently stand is the question.

This is not the only issue. There is also concern over migrants who were supposed to return to their home country or those who were supposed to enter Malaysia during the MCO period. This has been addressed somewhat. Only migrants who are working in essential services are allowed into Malaysia. This is on the condition that these migrants possess a letter from their employer and present it to the immigration authorities.

Essential services are laid out in Schedule 1 of the Industrial Relations Act 1967 as well as the Schedule of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Measures within the local Infected Areas) Regulations 2020. Based on the IRA 1967 and the PCID Regulations 2020 alone, it is clear that construction is not considered an essential service. But it is a key industry for the hiring of migrant workers as it comes under the 3D (dirty, dangerous and difficult) job denomination.

With all this coming to the fore, I cannot help but be transported back to car rides with my mother. It’s like that tape that used to play in her old car. I remember always thinking that I was listening to different tunes but with the nagging feeling that there was something similar about all the songs. After a few weeks of this, my mother finally told me that she only recorded “Candle in the Wind” by Elton John. It was the same song playing over and over again. The same feeling is associated with the plight of migrants, I think. It seems like we’re listening to different plights, but at the root of it, migrants will have the worst fate in the worst of times. At the end of the day, they will be the overlooked sector of society.

We are living in very strange days where there no sources to refer to, no reference as to how to survive. We have history to look at: the Spanish flu in 1918 or maybe even World War II. This, though, is quite far removed from today’s society. It was a fairly different time, with very different realities. On that note, one cannot be blamed for having an “each man for himself” mentality. However, perspective-taking is perhaps necessary. We are quick to blame celebrities for being tone-deaf when it comes to shelling out advice on “staying home”. “Ah, Ellen DeGeneres is one to talk, look at her home.” This is not entirely wrong, but is there not a degree of hypocrisy involved here? The upper middle class group, or those of us from the middle class, are rather blind to the B40 group and the cramped flats in which they live. We are all the more blind to migrants and the kongsis where they live.

When life was normal (to which we may never return), many of us would have passed construction sites during the heat of the day, going for our work lunches in our air-conditioned cars and just watching migrant workers slave away. Did any of us wonder, even for a second, what their lives might actually look like? Are we considering what they look like now? I highly doubt it. Most Malaysians are probably more worried about whether they can get Gardenia bread. Is it not only fair, as members of the human race, that we also keep our eyes peeled for migrants?

Parveen Kaur Harnam Singh is an FMT reader.