Illegal migrants swamp Malaysian ports on last day of amnesty
Illegal migrants swamp Malaysian ports on last day of amnesty
Julia Yeow, Agence France-Presse, Stulang Laut, Malaysia
Thousands of desperate illegal immigrants flooded Malaysia's
ports on Wednesday in a panicked rush to return home ahead of a
midnight amnesty deadline after which they face jail and
whipping.
A mass of mostly Indonesian migrants camped out at the jetty
in this southern Johor port, sleeping and eating amid piles of
rotting rubbish left by more than 30,000 others who headed home
before them.
"I don't want to leave, which is why I only came here today,
but I am afraid of what will happen to me when the amnesty ends,"
said Siti Ghafar, from Java.
Like many of her fellow illegal immigrants, Siti arrived in
Malaysia on a three-month holiday visa and simply disappeared
from official view, working for five years at a restaurant in the
northern Penang state.
After camping overnight at the jetty, Siti, 42, managed to buy
tickets home for herself, three sisters and an 18-year old
brother.
Across the South China Sea in Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo
island, it is mainly Filipinos who are crowding the jetties in
Sandakan port seeking tickets home.
Among them is Jung Alcantara, who has worked as an electrical
technician in Sabah for 15 years. He and his wife Teresita Lawas
are headed for Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines.
"I have been in Sabah for more than half of my adult life and
I find it so difficult to simply say goodbye to my second home,"
the 43-year-old said.
"It is not easy having to leave a place where we have learned
to love the people and adopt the local culture and traditions".
Tired of playing a cat-and-mouse game with the authorities,
who deported some 10,000 Filipinos from Sabah in the first three
months of this year, Jung was reconciled to going home but hoped
to return to Sabah some day.
"Life in Sabah is totally different from my hometown because
it easy to find a job here provided you are a skilled worker, and
the place is so peaceful," he said.
The desire to somehow make their way back to Malaysia is also
strong among the Indonesians camped at Stulang Laut.
Mukiano, a 37-year-old father of two who has worked for two-
years at a vegetable plantation, said he planned to return as
soon as possible.
"My employer said he will pay for all the valid documents so I
can come back and work here, but even if he does not, I know I
will not stay for long in Indonesia," he told AFP.
"There is so much more work for us in Malaysia, and life is
hard in Indonesia, but at this time I just want to leave the
country before the amnesty ends."
His fears of Malaysia's harsh new immigrations laws, which
will take effect on Thursday, are shared by more than 260,000
illegal workers who have responded to the amnesty program which
began March 21.
Under the new laws, the migrants and their employers face a
mandatory six months in jail and possibly up to six strokes of
the cane.
Abdul Razak Ejab, the jetty manager in Stulang Laut, said more
than 10,000 illegal workers had already been sent home from the
site.
"We are expecting that many more will come towards the later
part of the day, and many of them will not be able to make it
before midnight," he said.
Recognizing the problem, the government on Tuesday announced a
one-month reprieve for illegal immigrants who can prove they are
willing to leave the country but couldn't find a seat or get
travel documents in time.
Riot police are standing by at the jetties and an officer
stationed in Stulang Laut told AFP that reinforcements would be
called in later in the day as the numbers of desperate immigrants
was expected to grow.
Malaysia, which was home to an estimated 600,000 illegal
immigrants, blames them for contributing to a growth in crime and
other social problems. But employers, particularly in the
construction industry, have warned that the crackdown could cause
crippling project delays.