Malaysia Launches Crackdown On Illegal Workers

Associated Press
Tuesday, March 1, 2005

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian authorities raided workplaces Tuesday in a nationwide crackdown on illegal workers, mostly Indonesians, arresting at least 131 people after a four-month-old amnesty ended at midnight.

In one of the earliest raids, about 400 government volunteers and immigration officials - some armed with pistols and others with night sticks - cordoned off a construction site outside Kuala Lumpur and detained 243 foreigners. Some of them tried to flee into a nearby jungle in the early-morning darkness.

Forty among them who failed to produce proper documents were arrested and taken to a detention center pending trial where they face fines, caning or jail, said Mohamad Radzi Hussein, an official who led the raid. Ninety-one others were arrested nationwide, immigration officials said.

One worker at the construction site, 35-year-old Amin, who uses only one name, was nabbed after a futile bid to outrun his captors. He told a reporter who observed the raid that he was forced to skip the amnesty offer because "I have no money and there is no future for me in Indonesia."

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Malaysian authorities "mistakenly" arrested about 20 people, mostly from Aceh, even though they were refugees with valid documents issued by the agency.

The UNHCR is seeking their release, said Volker Turk of the agency. He said the UNHCR also had urged the government not to deport migrants from tsunami-struck areas of Aceh on compassionate grounds.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, while talking to reporters, refused to say if illegal migrants from Aceh would be deported.

Malaysia offered illegal workers a chance to return home without facing any penalties in an amnesty that started in October and expired Monday. Some 400,000 illegal workers departed, but Malaysian officials say about half a million remain.

Foreign workers from Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh and India form the backbone of Malaysia's menial work force, sustaining the construction industry and plantations. They also work in restaurants and do other low-paid jobs. Besides illegal workers, some 1 million other foreigners are working here legally.

Malaysians blame rising urban crime on foreign workers, especially the illegal ones who are often dumped by their employers.

Mahadi Arshad, director-general of a government volunteer agency deployed in the crackdown, said about 300,000 officials are involved in the operation, including those tasked with collecting information on the whereabouts of the illegal migrants.

Indonesia and the Philippines, along with human rights groups, called for humane treatment of detainees and urged Malaysia not to cane the illegal workers, a standard punishment here for a range of crimes. Caning, administered on the buttocks, splits the skin and leaves lifelong scars.