Recently, the vernacular China Press newspaper conducted a public survey involving 21,909 people on the migrant labour situation in the country. A full 90 percent of the respondents disagreed that immigration enforcement operations against migrant labour had helped reduce the country's cirme rate.
To another question, 56 percent of the respondents said that Malaysian employers took the risk of hiring illegal migrant labour as the Immigration Department imposed too many conditions and terms for the hiring of legal foreign workers.
These two public opinions convey to us that:
a. Undocumented foreign workers are pure economic migrants who genuinely seek employment
b. The Immigration Department needs to revamp its foreign worker policies and;
c. Possible rampant corruption within the Immigration Department needs to be thoroughly investigated.
Genuine migrant workers should not be denied their basic rights. In the wage dispute case involving some 90 Indonesian workers and a local construction company, the Selangor Labour Department should not try find an easy way out to deny the workers their wages even though they were working illegally. All work done by the workers need to be paid for accordingly.
On enforcement of immigration laws, the immigration enforcement units need to monitor very closely their track record and avoid 'selective enforcement' where only small companies are targeted while large and well-connected companies are let off scot-free.
As part of the interdependent international community, our government should also be more consistent in its human resources and immigration policies by adopting the following:
a. Revising the current sub-contracting system for labour in the construction and plantation industries;
b. Supervising employers for the recruitment of migrant workers in accordance with ILO conventions and recommendations, with the provision for clear and enforceable contracts by the host country;
c. Preventing abusive practices, migrant worker smuggling and trafficking, protecting their human rights and preventing and combating irregular labour migration.
d. Addressing the specific risks for all migrant workers - men and women - in certain occupations and sectors with particular emphasis on dirty, demeaning and dangerous jobs, and on women in domestic service and the informal economy.
e. Improving labour practices inspection and the creation of channels for migrant workers to lodge complaints and seek remedy without intimidation.
Every Malaysian knows that corruption in the country has gone from bad to worse. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's administration should be reminded of what Martin Luther King Jr once said: 'Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter'.
It is time now for more action, less rhetoric and less empty promises. We should fully support the prime minister's anti-corruption agenda for all sectors including the Immigration Department.
