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By Al Jacinto Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: Malaysia has
deported at least 250 illegal Filipino workers arrested in the
oil-rich state of Sabah, authorities said on Monday.
Reports indicated that Filipino
deportees, mostly Muslims, arrived by boat in Zamboanga City on the
weekend and were staying in refugee shelters under the care of
social workers. The Filipinos were mostly natives of Tawi-Tawi and
Sulu provinces who illegally crossed the border to Sabah to find
work.
Malaysia has repeatedly told the
Philippine government to speed up the repatriation of many illegal
Filipino workers detained in their jails. Sabah’s Chief Minister
Datuk Seri Musa Hajji Aman told Filipino lawmakers led by Rep. Nur
Jaafar of Tawi-Tawi, who visited Sabah in January, to expedite the
return of the arrested Filipinos.
“This has been a longstanding
issue that we in Sabah have been dealing with. I once again request
the Philippine authorities to expedite the documentation of their
nationals so that they can be repatriated to their country of
origin,” he said.
“We don’t want the social
problems that usually come along with the presence of illegal
immigrants,” the Minister said.
Jaafar was accompanied by Reps.
Yusop Jikiri of Sulu province and Filipino Ambassador to Malaysia
Victoriano Lecaros.
Tens of thousands of illegal
Filipinos have been arrested in Sabah the past years and many of
them had illegally crossed the island by boat from Tawi-Tawi to work
in construction sites despite a strict government campaign.
Many of them crossed Sabah
without passports. Others were duped by illegal recruiters who
promised them work in hotels and resorts in Malaysia, but ended up
without jobs and money and had been forced to work in palm oil
plantations under constant fear of being arrested.
Malaysia began a crackdown on up
to 500,000 illegal foreign workers since 2005 and police and
immigration authorities and volunteer squads have been conducting
searches that extended from construction sites in Kuala Lumpur to
oil palm plantations in Sabah.
Kuala Lumpur had previously given
amnesty that allowed illegal immigrants to leave the country with a
promise they could return as legal workers once they received proper
documents. The government’s tough action has enjoyed popular
support in Malaysia, where illegal workers, who had numbered more
than a million in a country of 24 million people, have been blamed
for crime and other social ills.
Malaysia said the illegal workers
do not pay tax and put a heavy burden on state services, such as
education and health care, increasing pressure on an already high
budget deficit. Some Filipino deportees said they were herded into
overcrowded detention camps before being expelled and others
reported tales of abuses inside Malaysian jails.
Philippine lawmaker Luzviminda
Ilagan on Monday said many of those deported to Zamboanga City on
Saturday had suffered inhumane treatment in Malaysia. “The
imprisonment of 250 undocumented Filipinos in Sabah was illegal.
Their detention without proper trial and means is in violation of
universal rights and laws,” Ilagan said.
She urged Manila to look into the
poor condition of Filipinos languishing in jails in Malaysia and to
take immediate steps to help them. “There were complaints from the
deported Filipinos that they were held in poorly maintained jails,
not given enough food and not provided proper health care. A woman
deportee even gave birth inside a Malaysian jail. Even if she were
an undocumented migrant, she should have received medical
attention,” she said.
In 2002, an alliance of Filipino
migrant groups called Migrante boycotted Malaysian Airlines to
dramatize their protests on the inhuman treatment of jailed illegal
Filipino workers. It also urged Filipinos to stop patronizing other
Malaysian services and to stop buying Malaysian products.
Filipino Muslims who were
deported said they had been forced to work illegally in Sabah
because the Philippine government failed to provide them livelihood
opportunities back home.
Many also decried the
discrimination in Zamboanga City where Christian employers flatly
reject Muslim job seekers for fear they are criminals or had
relatives in the Abu Sayyaf and other rebel groups. The
discrimination, they said, was heightened after the 9/11 al-Qaeda
attacks in the United States.
--Al Jacinto
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