Amnesty International Malaysia (AIM) has questioned the government’s planned large-scale amnesty exercise for illegal immigrants, in particular the various fees that will be charged to the illegals.

    

damansara damai illegal workers 160205 unpaid workers In a statement today, the NGO said they were “concerned over the fees and levies imposed in the legalising process of an illegal immigrant”.

Said Nora Murat, director of AIM, “The report states that the individual would have to pay RM400 to be legalised, and a further sum of between RM2,000 to RM3,000 will be charged for checkups, visa and other things.

“Finally an additional levy is required depending on the area of work a worker enters. Hence a person would have to pay approximately RM4,200.

“Firstly it is unrealistic to expect a migrant worker whose salary is  often  low to pay such an exorbitant fee. Secondly the levy should be borne by employers and not workers as was stated by Ministry of Human Resources to our researcher in ‘Trapped: The Exploitation of Migrant Workers in Malaysia’,” said Murat.

migrant workers - CRC walk Murat also found the government’s plans to outsource some of the legalisation processes to private companies troubling.

She noted that many NGOs had made reports against unscrupulous agents who had exploited migrants, and hoped that the government would be judicious in appointing any private companies to assist in the task.

“The companies must have a good human rights track record and should be willing to collaborate with other NGOs and civil society to ensure the rights of migrant workers are protected,” she said.

'DPM must clarify'

Star today reported the Home Ministry’s decision to hold a three-week amnesty programme for illegal immigrants next month.

Codenamed ‘6P’ - pendaftaran (registration), pemutihan (legalisation), pengampunan (amnesty), pemantauan (supervision), penguatkuasaan (enforcement) and pengusiran (deportation)’ - the illegals will be given three weeks to accept the offer or face arrests.

NONE Murat reminded that the programme must be carried out in accordance with human rights conventions.

She also said the government must ensure that the exercise did not include refugees and assylum seekers, as they were not in the same caterogy.

“We would like to emphasise that 6P programme would be unworkable if refugees and asylum workers are included within this definition.

“As persons who have fled their native lands because circumstances have made staying impossible, deportation to their home countries will only result in further human rights violations.

"Deportation should only be for those who are willing to be returned to the countries and not done arbitrarily,” she said.

She called on Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to address these concerns when he makes the official announcement on Thursday.

According to the Star report, Malaysia has approximately two million illegal immigrants.

Gov't to offer illegals amnesty to work