Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
Deputy Internal Security Minister Fu Ah Kiow said the need to house foreign workers away from local communities and regulate their movements was necessary "to improve public security," the New Straits Times quoted him as saying.
<P>"We
need to have a more regulated policy where we can place the foreign workers in
designated areas without depriving them of their basic rights," Fu said,
according to the paper. He cited one example of a community who were "uncomfortable"
with a large foreign worker presence over security fears.</P><P>Rights groups
are outraged at Malaysia’s plans to restrict foreign workers to their quarters.
The workers may only be allowed to leave once they receive permission and their
particulars recorded, news reports said.</P><P>A bill to restrict the workers
may be tabled next month, Home Minister Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said last week.</P><P>There
are about 1.8 million foreigners working legally in Malaysia, while another 700,000
do not have proper papers, according to government figures.</P><P>Malaysia has
long attracted migrants, many fleeing poverty, from Southeast and South Asian
countries like Indonesia, Myanmar, India, Bangladesh and China. Many of them end
up doing menial work spurned by locals on plantations and in the construction
industry, and are widely blamed for crime and social problems.</P><P>Fu was quoted
as saying that one in three inmates of about 32,000 in total in Malaysian jails
was foreign. Police chief Musa Hassan said about 5,000 crimes were committed by
foreigners last year from a total of about 230,000.</P><P>Last week, Deputy Prime
Minister Najib Razak said the government had not yet taken any position on confining
foreign workers, and the Human Resources Ministry said it was happy with current
legislation governing foreign workers.</P><P>London-based Amnesty International
said last week that since only 2 percent of crimes committed in Malaysia last
year were by foreign workers, "this proposal to link the escalation of crime
with foreign workers seems to amount to racial profiling."</P><P>"It
will instill fear and distrust within the migrant community, making them less
likely to cooperate with criminal investigations or to seek police protection
when victimized."</P><P>Fu and his officials were not immediately available
for comment.</P><P>Last week Shahrir Abdul Samad, a member of Parliament in southern
Johor state, urged Malaysian labor agents to educate migrant workers not to cook
cats and dogs amid suspicions local migrants were eating kidnapped pets.</P><P>Malaysia
restricted the number of Bangladeshi workers in the country in 1996 and banned
them entirely in 2004, after it said they were creating social problems by entering
into romantic liaisons with local women.</P><P>Officials have said the Bangladeshis,
who looked like Indian movie stars to some local women, had seduced and eloped
with them.</P><P>The ban was eased last year.</P><P><I>Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/26/asia/AS-GEN-Malaysia-Confining-Foreigners.php</I>
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