The Penang Office for Human Development (POHD) notes with apprehension and grave concern, the proposal of the Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan, to restrict and monitor the activities of foreign workers on worksites as well as outside working hours, which is anticipated to be tabled in Parliament to become law, by the Minister of Home Affairs next month.
As a Catholic organization, POHD views the labeling of all foreign workers across the board as potential criminals, to be wrong and unjust. The commission of crimes by two per cent of foreigners does not justify the herding of all foreign workers like cows into a ‘kandang’. Based on the rationale of the IGP’s proposal, if ninety-eight per cent of criminals are Malaysian nationals, measures should also be instituted to confine, compulsorily register Malaysians with their employers, and have their activities after working hours monitored. What applies to foreign workers should equally apply to Malaysians across the board. This kind of crime prevention measure robs the individual of their human dignity and rights. Such measures do not reflect well on the IGP and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
It will also send the wrong signals to employers in justifying their illegal confinement of workers. This unjustified confinement of workers is currently widely used in cases of illegal human trafficking, and against domestic workers by some unscrupulous employers. Further, the retaining of passports by agents and employers to control foreign workers movements, puts foreign workers in a very precarious situation where the threat of becoming an ‘undocumented’ or “illegal immigrant”, is perpetually held over their heads.
Moreover, they are frequently denied access to social services, affordable medical treatment, and legal aid when their rights as workers are breached. Denying foreign workers the right to live normal lives is a means of isolating them, which the measure proposed by the IGP will further perpetuate, making this country a larger prison for foreign workers. Workers who are denied normal lives are bound to get frustrated which would inevitably lead to unproductive activities.
Foreign workers have made, and still are making an enormous contribution to the Malaysian economy. The country has largely benefited from their labour; yet they remain one of the communities most vulnerable to ill-treatment and sub-human working and living conditions in the country. This is not the way to treat people who make such important contributions to the wealth of our country and our personal well-being, by their sweat, blood, and often tears.
POHD appeals to and urges the IGP and the Minister for Home Affairs not to make this proposal law in Parliament, next month. Parliament should also reject this bill on grounds that it is against basic humanity and principles of justice universally accepted in all religions in Malaysia.
POHD strongly urges that all rights under national labour laws be equally given to foreign workers in a just and fair manner as required by ILO Convention 97, under which treatment of foreign workers should be the same as that of workers who are nationals of their host country; without discrimination as to race, nationality, religion or sex.
The Minister for Human Resources, Datuk Seri Dr. Fong Chan Onn expressed the same view in his statement of 24 February, that all labour laws in Malaysia be equally applied to all workers, regardless of nationality. In addition to these, POHD calls on the government to similarly apply basic rights under the Federal Constitution to migrant workers in Malaysia.
POHD further calls upon the Government to honour its obligations under the international conventions it has ratified, all of the 28 ILO Conventions, especially the Migration for Employment Convention (C97), its obligations under the United Nations Charter, as a member of the UN Organization, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant international human rights laws, as an elected member of the UN Human Rights Council.
Joachim F. Xavier
Penang Office for Human Development - Ministry with Migrant Workers
Pusat Keuskupan Katolik,
290 Jalan Macalister,
10450 Penang
Tel 04 2273405 Fax 04 2283870
(The Penang Office for Human Development is the social service arm of the Catholic Church in the Penang Diocese that provides humanitarian services to migrant workers in the Northern Region)
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