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By Katrice R. Jalbuena, Reporter
The Philippines and Malaysia will
have the opportunity to discuss the status of Filipino workers
and refugees in Malaysia as the country hosts the 5th RP-Malaysia
Working Group on Migrant Workers on July 21 to 22.
Initiated in 2005, the annual
meeting is a functional forum to address bilateral concerns on the
status of Filipinos in Malaysia.
According to Foreign Affairs
Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban B. Conejos Jr.,
head of the Philippine delegation, the conduct of the meeting is
timely due to Malaysia’s reported impending crackdown on illegal
migrant workers, many of whom are Filipinos.
Expected to be discussed during
the meeting are the over-all status of Filipino migrant workers and
refugees (IMM13 cardholders); recruitment of Filipino workers;
arrest, detention and repatriation processes; issuance of machine
readable Philippine passport; human trafficking cases; border
control and immigration issues.
Conejos expressed optimism that
the meeting would further enhance the close cooperation between the
Philippine and Malaysian governments in their desire to continuously
address mutual concerns to ensure the welfare and protection of
documented Filipino workers, as well as the orderly repatriation of
undocumented workers.
“The working group was formed
several years ago because of the concern of the complexities
inherent [in the issues of] the undocumented Filipinos in Sabah,”
said Conejos.
“Both the Philippine and
Malaysian governments are aware that many of them are not simply
undocumented workers, but people with actual cultural and familial
ties.”
“Sabah is a complex challenge
to both governments [and] requires a very comprehensive solution,
not only looking at it at the labor side, but the cultural [and]
ethnicity [factors] and family perspective,” Conejos said.
Of the estimated 200,000 migrants
in Sabah, Conejos said that the Philippines seeks to regularize the
status of two types of “special” Filipinos in Malaysia: about
56,000 Filipinos granted refugee status by Malaysia during the
Mindanao conflict in the 1970s, and the undetermined number of
Filipinos who have lived, borne children, and known no other life
outside Malaysia for the past 30 years.
“In the end, though, it is the
decision of the Malaysian government,” said Conejos. “As a
sovereign state, Malaysia has a right to decide who will stay and
who will be expelled. However, [it] is still bound by
international laws and conventions of deportation procedure and
human rights and [it] must respect the basic rights of deportees.”
Conejos told reporters that
currently in Sabah’s three deportation centers are some 2,800
Filipinos awaiting deportation. Weekly, around 150 to 200
Filipinos are deported back to Zamboanga City by ferry.
“We are in constant
coordination with Malaysian authorities to ensure that their
deportation is carried out in a humane manner,” said Conejos.
“When they reach Zamboanga, there are two processing centers where
we provide them with temporary shelter and even assist them if they
want to attempt to return, via legal means this time.”
To prepare for the anticipated
increase due to the crackdown, Conejos has called for an interagency
meeting with officials of the Bureau of Immigration, Department of
National Defense, and the Department of Social Welfare and
Development to prepare for the exodus of deportees.
Only 3,000 to 4,000 Filipinos are
working in Malaysia are professionals, according to Conejos. In
Sabah, most Filipinos work in plantations, construction sites, trade
and services, while some migrate to unite with their families.
“We would like to encourage all
Filipinos, be they in Sabah or elsewhere, to ensure that they enter
a country where they hope to work of live legally,” said Conejos.
“We don’t like to think or call them ‘illegals,’ rather we
prefer the term undocumented.”
According to Conejos,
undocumented workers are often subject to abuse. While the
Philippine government is ready to extend protection and help, the
undocumented’s presence is not detected until he or she is in dire
straits.
The repatriation of migrant
workers in Sabah has become a cause of concern even for civil
society groups. At least one nongovernment organization, the Blas F.
Ople Policy Center had appealed to Malaysian authorities to ensure
humane treatment of undocumented foreign workers to be affected by a
massive immigration crackdown in Sabah.
It also urged the Philippine
government to launch diplomatic initiatives and prepare a
contingency plan for Filipinos who may be affected by a forthcoming
drive against undocumented foreign workers.
A formal announcement regarding
the crackdown had been issued by Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister
Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. It was echoed by Sabah’s Chief
Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Haji Aman who said that Malaysia
is serious and committed to a massive operation to flush out illegal
immigrants from the state.
The Ople Center expressed concern
that the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur lacks resources and
personnel to help Filipinos caught in a revitalized immigration
campaign.
“They need the authority and
resources to fund a bigger diplomatic team composed of labor, social
welfare and consular personnel familiar with Sabah and the ethnic
dialects of the Filipinos now living there,” said Susan Ople,
executive director of the center.
She also urged the DSWD to delay
the departure of its social welfare attaché whose term has recently
ended, but has good contacts in Sabah.
Ople noted that the Office of the
Philippine Labor Attaché headed by Atty. Josephus Jimenez has only
five people as compared to an estimated 400,000 Filipinos living and
staying in Sabah and 30,000 workers in peninsular Malaysia.
“Under normal times, the
embassy is already overstretched in dealing with welfare cases. What
more during a massive crackdown that could affect thousands of
Filipinos in a province that is miles away from Kuala Lumpur?”
Ople, a former Labor undersecretary,
noted that an integrated contingency plan is needed to ensure that
Filipinos staying in Sabah without work permits are treated well and
with proper coordination with the Philippine Embassy. A
reintegration plan to assist those who are sent home to Mindanao is
also needed to give the returnees a chance to rebuild their lives.
“We have had experience in the
past when the government had to send its navy ships to Sandakan to
bring home thousands of Filipinos affected by the drive against
illegal immigrants. Since then, coordination between the two
governments through diplomatic channels has improved. In light of
the cordial relations between the Philippines and Malaysia, we wish
to appeal to Malaysian and Sabah authorities not to use force in
dealing with foreign workers, but to coordinate their actions with
the embassies concerned to ensure that no one gets hurt or is
unfairly treated,” she said.
The Ople Center noted that
through the years, Filipinos from the poorest communities in
Mindanao have relocated as plantation workers in Sabah where they
are able to earn more.
“We also know of women who have
been trafficked to Kota Kinabalu to work as bar girls in pubs
frequented by foreigners. The dignity and welfare of these women
must be protected as well,” Ople said.
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