Mahathir warns of new wave of boat people due to crisis
Mahathir warns of new wave of boat people due to crisis
KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysian Premier Mahathir Mohamad warned that the Asian economic crisis has led to a serious human rights problem with international implications as a new wave of boatpeople seek to escape economic hardship, reports said yesterday.
"An injustice has been done to these people. Human rights have been violated," Mahathir was quoted as saying by the New Sunday Times newspaper in Hanover, Germany.
Mahathir, who was due to return to Malaysia yesterday after a three-day visit to Germany, said over the last eight months millions of people have lost their jobs, with the threat of massive lay-offs still to come in many countries, some of which are also facing a shortage of food and medicine.
The outspoken 72-year-old Mahathir blamed the situation on the continued instability of regional currencies.
He said Southeast Asia was seeing a new wave of boat people, this time from Indonesia, with global implications similar to those in the mid-seventies, following an exodus of refugees from Vietnam.
During the last two weeks, the country had arrested 3,063 illegals, as compared to less than 9,000 for the whole of last year.
On top of the 6,319 already sent home in March, the Malaysian government directed the immigration department last Thursday to deport another 10,000 illegals this month to free up its detention camps.
Indonesia, with more than 200 million people, is suffering from a major financial crisis, triggering fears of an exodus of economic migrants to neighboring countries.
Around 600,000 Indonesians work legally in Malaysia, while an estimated 11,000 Indonesians are in detention camps for illegal entry, the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur said recently.
Fearing an influx of Indonesians, Malaysia has stepped up border security, with police estimating around 5,000 Indonesians are waiting for boats at various points in Sumatra to enter Malaysia illegally. Malaysia's west coast is less than 25 kilometers from the Indonesian island of Sumatra in some places.
Reports said over the weekend that the country's marine police is to send an armada of navy ships and speed boats, backed by two helicopters, to block an influx of illegal immigrants into the country.
More than 500 personnel would be involved in the round-the- clock operation along the west coast of peninsular Malaysia, the Star newspaper reported.
"With the help of the airforce, we are now able to conduct 24- hour air surveillance. More observation posts will also be built along the coast," said Maritime Enforcement Coordination Center director Hashim Mohamad.
Hashim also said a 100-million-ringgit (US$27 million) radar and marine monitoring system, to be commissioned by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on March 27, would be tried out during the operation.
"We are feeling the effects (of the new boat people). Today, it is Malaysia, but tomorrow it (the problem) may spread to other countries," the prime minister was quoted as saying by The Sunday Star newspaper.
In Singapore, some 117 men had been jailed and ordered caned because of entering the country illegally or overstaying in the city-state, the Sunday Times reported.
The men were among 300 people charged with immigration offenses on Saturday. They bring to nearly 800 the number of people arrested last week in a drive against illegal immigrants, who have been flooding into Singapore as the regional economies deteriorate.
The Times said that they were sentenced to up to six weeks in jail and four to six strokes of the cane.