Manila sends team to Malaysia to probe deport<\/p>\n
Reuters
\nManila<\/p>\n
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said on Saturday she
\nis sending an official mission to Malaysia, amid public outrage
\nover reports authorities there mistreated deported Filipino
\nworkers and their families.<\/p>\n
Arroyo said Monday's mission was part of an \"understanding\"
\nreached with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to ease
\ntension between the two countries following media reports workers
\nhad fallen ill and infants had died in detention camps.<\/p>\n
She said she talked with Mahathir by telephone on Friday.<\/p>\n
\"We came to an understanding on how best to ease the situation
\naffecting our countrymen in Sabah,\" Arroyo said in a statement.
\n\"I'm sending an official mission to Kuala Lumpur on Monday to
\nthresh out the details.\"<\/p>\n
Foreign Affairs undersecretary Lauro Baja Junior said later
\nthe mission will jointly investigate with Malaysian authorities
\nallegations of human rights violations against illegal Filipino
\nmigrants in Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo island.<\/p>\n
He said in a radio interview a six-member Manila team would
\nalso probe the cause of the deaths of some Filipino children in
\nSabah.<\/p>\n
The Malaysian government said it would take \"appropriate
\naction\" if could be proved that Malaysian authorities were
\nresponsible for the deaths, Baja said.<\/p>\n
Mahathir on Friday invited the Philippines to send officials
\nto investigate the alleged deaths. \"I'm trying to resolve this
\nthing in a rational way, so if they say we are ill-treating the
\nFilipinos, let them come and see,\" he told a news conference.<\/p>\n
Kuala Lumpur's crackdown of an estimated 600,000 undocumented
\nworkers has enraged politicians and activists in the Philippines
\nand Indonesia in recent days.<\/p>\n
Activists torched pictures of Mahathir and burned the
\nMalaysian flag in Manila on Thursday after reports said several
\ninfants had died of malnutrition and dehydration while in
\ndetention camps in Sabah or on the way home.<\/p>\n
A Philippine newspaper reported 13 infants had died, but
\nSocial Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said only three of the
\nchildren had died during the crackdown.<\/p>\n
Arroyo urged the public to be calm over the issue.<\/p>\n
\"I understand the emotions generated among our people because
\nof children having died in detention centers, the canings that
\nare happening and other controversial events that are being
\ncovered profusely in the media,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"There are also those who are trying to exploit the situation
\nto serve their selfish ends, to erode our relations with Malaysia
\nor to pursue political or terroristic ends inimical to the common
\ninterests of both nations.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, local relief workers said on Saturday nearly
\n50???? illegal Indonesian workers and their children have died
\nfrom illness in refugee camps in the past month after they fled
\nMalaysia.<\/p>\n
They said the situation was a national disaster for 40,000
\nworkers stranded in camps and around the town of Nunukan, near
\nthe Sabah border, as more workers streamed in each day to avoid
\ntough new Malaysian labor laws.<\/p>\n
Malaysia's government gave illegal immigrants, the majority of
\nthem Indonesians, until August 1 to leave or face penalties of
\nsix months in jail and up to six strokes of the cane.<\/p>\n
Arroyo said suggestions by some legislators that the
\nPhilippines revive its claim on Sabah \"must be firmly delinked
\nfrom the issue of deportees\".<\/p>\n
\"We should not taint our actions with grandstanding or
\ndiplomatic adventurism. This is not the way to resolve bilateral
\nproblems between long-standing friends,\" she said.<\/p>",
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