LFL: No sincere amnesty offer given to undocumented migrants

CORONAVIRUS | Lawyers For Liberty (LFL) said the government did not make a sincere offer of amnesty to undocumented migrants to come forward and get tested for Covid-19.

This comes after defence minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the amnesty offer ended yesterday, which LFL described as a “puzzling statement”.

“We strongly question whether the offer for amnesty was even sincere when the authorities continue to conduct raids and detain migrants during the movement control order (MCO) even after said amnesty was purportedly announced.

“Despite being heavily criticised by human rights and the National Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) on the rationale of rounding up migrants during a health crisis, they stubbornly insist that they have a right to detain undocumented migrants and cannot allow them to ‘roam free’, with no reference to any supposed amnesty,” said LFL coordinator Zaid Malek in a statement today.

He said Ismail Sabri was contradicting himself as the whole point of offering amnesty was to encourage undocumented migrants to cooperate with the authorities.

However, because raids and detentions continue despite the offer for amnesty, Zaid said no migrants would voluntarily come forward to get tested for Covid-19.

The undocumented migrants cannot trust the authorities to not arrest them if they do come forward, he said.

“They (the authorities) have failed to show any goodwill on their so-called amnesty offer. The migrants are not to blame here,” he said.

Zaid said the government must halt all raids and arrests on undocumented migrants immediately until the Covid-19 pandemic has been resolved if they are truly serious about getting the migrants to cooperate.

In a separate statement, Amnesty International Malaysia said it was “deeply alarmed” by reports of increasing Covid-19 cases among undocumented migrants detained in immigration depots.

There are currently four immigration depot clusters – Bukit Jalil, Semenyih, Sepang, and Putrajaya, with a total of 410 positive cases as of May 31.

“Not only have undocumented migrants and refugees been taken to detention centres notorious for their poor conditions and the human rights violations... their health and lives amidst the Covid-19 pandemic have also been put at risk.

“These centres have the potential to become the epicentre of the virus spreading, similar to what happened in Singapore where cases in migrant worker dormitories increased exponentially,” said Amnesty Malaysia interim executive director Preethi Bhardwaj in a statement today.

Amnesty also pointed out that Immigration Department director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud said on April 22 that there would be no raids against undocumented migrants during the MCO.

Despite that, raids were carried out by the Immigration and the police in areas under enhanced MCO that were heavily occupied by migrant communities such as Masjid Jamek, Selayang Baru, and Petaling Jaya Old Town.

Hundreds of migrants, including children, were arrested in those raids and detained in immigration depots.

“Detainees being cramped together in overcrowded spaces, where social distancing is impossible to observe, and under unhygienic conditions can lead to increased risk of Covid-19 infections,” Bhardwaj said.

Thus, Amnesty calls upon the government to immediately release those detained under the MCO and act urgently to decongest detention centres to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Treatment must be given to detainees who have tested positive for the virus while those who are not infected must be given access to adequate preventive measures without discrimination, Bhardwaj said.

Amnesty also noted there has been an increase in hateful messages against migrants and refugees on social media amid the pandemic.

“We call on the Malaysian authorities to publicly denounce xenophobic and racist sentiments against migrants, which are at risk of escalating if not addressed.

“We are deeply concerned that the authorities themselves are repeating hateful lies and stereotypes in relation to migrants.

“Government statements saying that undocumented migrant workers who are not detained can spread the virus to other people are not grounded in fact and are counterproductive to pandemic mitigation efforts,” Bhardwaj said.

Amnesty pointed to Ismail Sabri’s statement on May 22, where he said Malaysians should be worried about migrants who are not detained as they could spread the virus.

Ismail Sabri also said on May 26 that infected undocumented migrant workers could spread the disease to “our own innocent citizens” if not detained.

“These statements are extremely dangerous as they perpetuate false stereotypes and lead to greater persecution of already vulnerable communities.

“The Malaysian government should take an active role in preventing the spread of misinformation against migrants and refugees through a reliable and prompt system of accurate information, instead of actively discriminating against them,” he added.

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