Arrests Of Migrants Serious Setback In Fight Against Covid 19 Says Rights Group

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Lawyers for Liberty says the detention of undocumented migrants in Masjid India and Menara City One raises serious concerns.PETALING JAYA: Rights group Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) today said the arrests of undocumented migrants in Kuala Lumpur are a serious setback in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic
It said the arrests, carried out by immigration and other enforcement agencies in Masjid India and Menara City One yesterday, raised serious concerns
“The detentions send a chilling message to the millions of other undocumented migrants that they will be detained if they come forward for treatment with Covid 19 symptoms or if they come out to be tested,” LFL adviser N Surendran said in a statement
“Like other nations across the world, our priority must surely be to get rid of Covid 19 from our communities
“How is this to be achieved if the millions of undocumented workers in Malaysia become too afraid to cooperate in tackling the disease? It is believed that there may be up to four million undocumented workers in our country.”Surendran said Singapore stood as an example of how widely the virus could have spread in migrant communities
Viewed from the prism of the fight against Covid 19, he said, there appeared to be no discernible logic to these arrests
He said there was now the real risk of new Covid 19 clusters appearing in immigration detention centres or police lock-ups
“Crowded detention centres would be a perfect breeding ground for the virus. Were they (those arrested) screened before being taken to places of detention
“Was social distancing and other precautions taken during the operations yesterday? Footage of a large number of migrants being made to walk in a long line as well as of many migrants squatting together, suggests otherwise,” he said
Surendran said the detentions were not only ill-timed, but were futile in achieving the aim of controlling the migrant population
“The ballooning in numbers of undocumented migrants in Malaysia is caused by long-term failures in the management of migrant workers, including in the recruitment policies
“The migrants themselves are hapless victims of poor policies and unscrupulous or abusive recruitment agencies and other stakeholders
“This has been pointed out over and over again, but appears to have fallen on deaf ears in the government. Whether BN, PH or PN, all appear uninterested to tackle the problem in a meaningful and humane manner,” he said
He urged the government to place an immediate moratorium on all raids and detentions of undocumented workers “pending the struggle against the scourge of Covid 19”
In the meantime, he said, a thorough and comprehensive review must be made of the management and recruitment of migrant workers
Yesterday, Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador said authorities conducted large-scale joint operations to weed out undocumented foreigners during the MCO as part of efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19
Hamid said the operations involving police, the immigration, the armed forces and health ministry were to ensure no undocumented immigrants sneak out from identified areas and spread the disease somewhere else
“We cannot allow them to move freely while the MCO is still enforced as it will be difficult for us to track them down if they leave identified locations
“That is the main objective of today’s operations which we conducted at several locations in the capital,” he said. - FMT

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