'Allowing military to arrest undocumented migrants a misuse of power'

 

The human rights group Tenaganita has chided Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob's statement on an emergency order to allow armed forces personnel to arrest undocumented immigrants entering the country's borders.

Its executive director Glorene A Das said Ismail's statement on giving a certain power to armed forces personnel is an admission that immigration authorities and other relevant enforcement have been unable to secure the borders effectively.

"Using the emergency, calling on the military to hunt down and arrest undocumented migrants without legal process is a clear misuse of power.

"Enforcing any law, including the Immigration Act, must be carried out in the spirit of justice and Bonum Commune (common goodness of society), not oppressing the oppressed and instilling fear in them and leading them to despair," she said in a statement.

Glorene A Das

She added that Ismail's call for the military to arrest undocumented immigrants shows how broken Malaysia's Immigration system is today and how the undocumented immigrants being exploited to justify the emergency.

She advised the senior minister not to shift the blame on the migrant workers as the recent Covid-19 test results show that the number of positive cases is higher among the local population than migrant workers.

"It is of great concern that such a statement seems to stem from a deep-rooted/seated animosity towards persons from foreign lands and particularly towards the least in the society.

"Such statements expressing a strong xenophobic view is very dangerous; it further aggravates the intense, violent hatred towards migrants, that has already been brewing, creating an inhumane environment in Malaysian society," she said.

The concerned ministries, she said, should focus on rectifying serious shortcomings in the immigration system as highlighted in the Public Accounts Committee report last year.

Some of the findings include:

• Granting of too many special approvals (more than regular approvals) to circumvent existing regulations: This practice was described as an unhealthy practice which does not meet the original aim of the foreign worker quota application process, which is to ensure stringent screening of those who qualify (to bring in foreign labour). A portion of the special approvals involved sub-sectors that were not allowed to bring in foreign workers.
• The entry of foreign workers who had failed their medical examinations: Permits were issued to workers who failed the Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency (Fomema) inspection. No record has been kept on workers who failed the Fomema test being sent back to their home countries.
• Existence of middlemen: The PAC described this as a problem stating that no middlemen should be involved in such proceedings and urged the MACC to investigate.
• Stolen user IDs for the immigration system: The PAC found that some user IDs were allegedly stolen and misused to create a fake quota in the Malaysian Immigration System (MyIMMs). This incident clearly shows that the system can be easily hacked and that the security system used is weak.
• Twenty police reports had been lodged on theft and misuse of user identification to apply for false quotas under the MyIMMs system but there was no outcome from the investigations.

Glorene said: "It should be evident that the above-mentioned shortcomings have contributed significantly to the creation of undocumented migrants."

On Tuesday, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong consented to the proclamation of emergency as advised by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

The move came after the country recorded continuous four-digit figure Covid-19 cases since November last year.

Ismail had said that the emergency order would give more power to authorities to contain the Covid-19 pandemic and impose hefty fines on companies that break the law in regard to Covid-19 SOP.

Meanwhile, Lawyers for Liberty coordinator Zaid Malek also expressed concern with Ismail's statement in regard to using the military to arrest the undocumented immigrants.

Zaid stressed that the armed forces are ill-equipped to deal with civilian arrest.

"The armed forces are trained for combat in armed conflict against foreign invaders and are ill-equipped to deal with civilian arrest.

"The powers to detain civilians should only be exercised by police officers, who have been trained to deal with such arrests," he said in a statement.

He added that army personnel must only be utilised to assist cops in ensuring movement control order compliance. - Mkini