A hard-hitting report on the aftermath of Malaysia's mass expulsion of illegal immigrants from Sabah alleged that the government violated human rights and international protocols in its zeal to repatriate them to the Philippines.

The Philippines-based Migrante International concluded that "the atrocities and inhuman sufferings witnessed by the world in August 2002 (in the wake of enforcement of tough immigration laws) remains incomparable".

"A few weeks before the waves of deportations, Malaysian police raided 300 shanties of poor Filipinos at Kampong Karansangan," the report said.

"They all appearing seriously malnourished, were brought to prison in trucks. Barely fed, and short of drinking water, the prisoners slept off the time on the cement floor to stave off hunger."

The report is based on a relief and medical fact-finding mission to Jolo and Tawi-Tawi - the two Filipino ports nearest to the Sabah coastline - between from Sept 21 to 29 last year.

Other groups such as the organisation of women workers Gabriela and Moro Christian People's Alliance, as well as doctors and nurses were in the team.

'Long-time residents'

Researchers received paralegal training from the Public Interest Law Centre before embarking on their mission, said Roy Anunciacion, the organisation's secretary-general, who briefed participants at a regional conference on undocumented migrants, in Port Dickson.

To add insult to injury, said Anunciacion, many of these Filipinos had escaped to Sabah "decades ago", among thousands displaced in the conflict between the Moro National Liberation Front and the Manila government in southern Phillippines.

They had lived and worked in Sabah for decades, got married and raised families, he said in response to questions from participants..

In the interviews with 150 refugees - 17 of whom were documented through notarised affidavits - Migrante International noted that detainees received punishments that ranged from the withholding of food and being forced to stand all day in the sun, to solitary confinement and alleged sexual abuse .

A high proportion of individuals were also separated from their families, Anunciacion said.

"One mother interviewed was only able to bring one of her children to Tawi-Tawi. After her papers are processed, she may go back for the other four," he said.

"A father interviewed at the Kasulutan processing centre was separated from his entire family. He plans to return to Sabah but without a job, he has no money for the boat fare."

Returnees 'abandoned'

The report also said the mass deportation of the undocumented Filipinos violated international covenants, conventions and protocols, "most particularly the Geneva Convention 1951 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights".

But the burden over the violations does not only rest on the Malaysian side.

"Our closer look at the plight of the refugees revealed that the breadth of human rights violations they suffered can be traced from Mindanao to Sabah and back," the report said.

The report noted that after the cloud of indignation over the treatment of its citizens had subsided, there was no genuine political will on the side of the Philippine government to put out any comprehensive policy to support the returnees.

"We assert that after the media coverage subsided, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo abandoned the Sabah refugees,".Anunciacion said.

"Like her three-minute publicity commercials, the Macapagal-Arroyo administration's help towards refugees lasted only for three days and it addressed only their most basic needs for food and transportation to nearby provinces."

In communities where refugees are concentrated - such as in Anuling Patikul, Sulu and Sitangkai, and Tawi-Tawi - "even modest assistance to build a home is non-existent" alongside the absence of medical support, counseling services, or livelihood projects.

In addition, he claimed, the Philippine government also separately processed passports for the migrants' swift return to Sabah.

Three studies

The report forms part of a trio of documents that includes a study conducted in Malaysia by labour rights group Tenaganita, and in Indonesia by Jakarta-based NGO Kopbumi. A combined report is in the planning.

The four-day conference is jointly organised by Tenaganita, Asia-Pacific Mission for Migrants, and Migrante International. Participants comprise some 40 individuals representing workers, migrants and refugee bodies from Asia and the Middle East.

It is being held at a time of critical international opinion in the wake of the conviction of Tenaganita head Irene Fernandez for publishing 'false news' in a memorandum on detention camp conditions in Malaysia.

The memorandum alleged abuse and dehumanised treatment of migrants in detention camps. After a seven-year trial, Fernandez was sentenced by the Kuala Lumpur magistrate's court last Thursday to 12 months' imprisonment. She has filed an appeal against the verdict and sentence.

Local and international NGOs have decried the decision, which they claim has trampled on the basic right to free speech as well as a hazard to the work of human rights defenders in Malaysia.