AsPac groups hold 5-day FFM in Malaysia

Malaysia is a hotbed of abuses against migrant workers. After the Fact Finding Mission (FFM) in Sabah organized by the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) and participated in by various NGO’s and migrant organizations, this fact is even better established.

The FFM, conducted last June 11 to 16, 2009 was initiated by APMM, in cooperation with TENAGANITA and Migrante International, to ascertain the concrete situation of migrant workers in Sabah, particularly that of undocumented migrants and their families. It aimed to establish facts that can be used to advance the advocacy for the migrant workers and against the arrest, detention and deportation of undocumented migrants. Additionally, it also sought to serve as a springboard for cooperation among groups in Sabah and elsewhere where the rights and wellbeing of migrants are at stake.

Members of the FFM included Rey Asis of Asia Pacific Students and Youth Association (ASA), Roy Anunciacion of Migrante International, Aurelio Estrada and Ade Ahmed Faidullo of the APMM, Cong. Luzviminda Ilagan of Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP), Fajar Kurniawan of Lumbaga Banduan Hukum (LBH), Baseer Naveed of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), Steven Ng and Florida Sandanasamy of Tenaganita in Malaysia, Antonio Salcedo of Osan Migrant Center in South Korea, and Amy Sim of Engender.

In the five days of the FFM, the participants conducted interviews and meetings with migrant workers, NGOs, government officials and even church people who provide assistance to migrants to get a clear picture of the practices and policies in Sabah on foreign workers.

In Kota Kinabalu, they held separate meetings with Jasmih Bin Salamat, Assistant Secretary of the Sabah branch of SUHAKAM, Umbara Setiwan, Vice Consul for the Indonesian Consulate in Sabah, and Bapak Imran Hanafi, principal of Sekolah Indonesia Kota Kinabalu.

For two consecutive evenings, the group went to two different migrant colonies where they interviewed migrant workers and their families. Yohanes, a known personality and migrant leader within the Indonesian migrant community, was interviewed as well.

On the 14th of June, the group was divided into two: one went to Tawau while the other to Sandakan.

The Sandakan team got to interview migrant Filipinos and Indonesians of Papuan descent. The meetings were held in the auspices of mainly Catholic parishes who were providing support to them. Meetings were likewise held with Bishop Julius Dusin Gitom of Sandakan, priests and other lay people who were supportive of the migrants’ cause.

A meeting with Dicasaran Acraman, administrative officer of the Philippine Embassy in Malaysia and head of the four-man team in Sandakan, also ensued.

The Tawau team looked into the situation of migrant workers in palm oil plantations. There, they interviewed migrant workers, mostly undocumented, in Tawau proper and Semporna. They also headed to Lahad Datu where they met with Filipino and Indonesian migrant workers encountering problems of exploitation in a palm oil plantation.They likewise met with church leaders at the Tawau office of Tenaganita.

On the evening of their last day, both groups recouped in Kota Kinabalu to share their findings, conclusions and recommendations.

Major findings of the FFM were:

1. Migrant workers remain to be targets of oppression and exploitation. Even migrant workers with legal working permits have been arrested and detained.

2. From the time they leave their home countries, they are already caught in a vicious debt cycle as recruitment agencies and employers overcharge them on processing, visa and levy.

3. Migrant workers are forced into debt bondage as employers, both in urban and rural areas, hold their passports, deduct from their salaries without any justification and provide no benefits.

4. Corruption in the Malaysian government agencies has been alleged as immigration authorities have been reportedly collecting fees from migrant workers especially at the entry points and Malaysian police receiving or demanding bribes in exchange for the freedom of arrested migrant workers.

5. This web of deceit and corruption apparently leads to the seemingly easy inflow of migrant workers who are amassing by the minute despite massive crackdowns.

6. SUHAKAM, Malaysia’s National Commission on Human Rights, has admitted its limited capacity to effect change with regard to the situation of migrant workers. As its representative has stated, the Malaysian government itself does very little in resolving the problem and has, in turn, become part of the problem.

7. Indonesian migrant workers have little trust for the Indonesian Consulate’s capacity to address their problems. From marriage issues to urgent labor concerns, the Indonesian Consulate in Sabah has remained inconsistent and hence unreliable in providing support to Indonesian migrants.

8. While a memorandum of agreement exists to ensure Indonesian migrant workers’ rights, a problem ensues with one stipulation in the agreement allowing employers to hold their employees’ passports.

9. The establishment of Sekolah Indonesia Kota Kinabalu is a recognized development in the agreement between Malaysian and Indonesian governments to provide education to Indonesian children. While tuition is free, certain aspects of the program remain problematic, pertaining to the migration status of the children, the proximity of the school to migrant workers’ communities, among others.

10. There are more school-age children and youth in plantation areas yet provision of education is much more difficult due to a number of reasons: distance of the plantations from urban areas, lack or absence thereof of electricity, lack of access to needed materials, lack or absence thereof of school facilities, among others.

11. There is no functioning Philippine Consulate in Sabah due to the contention between the Philippines and Malaysia on the Sabah islands.

12. While a temporary working office in Kota Kinabalu has been established, services to migrant workers will depend mainly on the availability of the consulate representatives themselves.

13. The Philippine government’s ’s four-person team in Sandakan only provides passport services to its constituents. It is found out, however, that certain private establishments provide the same services and with the knowledge of the head of the four-person team.

14. No update has been obtained with regards to the mechanisms created by the Philippines-Malaysia working group as the Philippine Consulate representative chooses not to comment on the matter while the representative from SUHAKAM has denied any knowledge of such working group.

15. Trafficking of women and children has been noted through interviews made with migrant workers.

16. Institutions of faith (e.g. Roman Catholic, Anglican) with its organizations are the only existing groups in Sabah that provide assistance and refuge to migrant workers. Aside from the team by Tenaganita based in Tawau, there are no non-secular organizations that cater to the demands and needs of migrant workers.

With such findings, there can be no doubt that advocacy, organizing and education work for migrant workers in Malaysia are very much imperative. Services also should be made available to those who encounter abuses or any type of problems as a worker.

Malaysia indeed is deserving of its reputation as one of the worst areas where migrants are treated as no less than slaves with very minimal rights and protection. It is hoped that with the FFM, advocacy for migrants will be strengthened and actions would be taken to alleviate their plight.#

This is reprinted from APMM News Digest, June 2009. Monthly Newsletter of the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM). Retrieved from http://www.apmigrants.org/publications/ND%20June%202009.pdf