Malaysia comes under fire for plan to whip illegals

Malaysia comes under fire for plan to whip illegals

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Government plans to whip illegal
immigrants in Malaysia were attacked as "inhuman and barbaric" by
labor and rights groups Thursday.

"We condemn the move to whip migrant workers. It is
dehumanizing," said Irene Fernandez, director of Tenaganita, a
group which champions women's' and migrant workers' rights.

"Migrant workers sell, mortgage their land or property, enter
into severe debt through loans and pay for their legal employment
in Malaysia," Tenaganita said in a statement.

The statement said the government by proposing whipping to
deal with the problem was behaving like a batterer.

"The government has to come up with a comprehensive plan to
handle the issue -- right from recruitment, employers' attitudes
and violation of employees' rights," Fernandez said.

Elizabeth Wong, secretary-general of the National Human Rights
Society, said the group was totally against caning, which she
described as "a form of torture."

"It is an inhuman way to treat people. It is barbaric.

"There will be many instances of migrant workers who come to
Malaysia legally but later become illegals when they are suddenly
terminated (fired)," she said.

Wong said the government should focus on entry points to deter
illegal immigrants.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced this
week that new legislation providing for caning of illegal
immigrants would be submitted to the cabinet soon.

The Star newspaper said it had learned that a maximum of six
cuts with a cane would be added to increased fines and jail
terms, which now stand at maximums of 10,000 ringgit (US$2,600)
and five years.

Most foreign workers in Malaysia come from Indonesia, India,
Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines.

The government had toyed before with the idea of whipping
illegals, which is practiced in neighboring Singapore, but
dropped the plan after opposition from rights groups.

But the arrest of some 50,000 foreigners for various
immigration offenses in the first six months of this year seems
to have prompted a rethink.

"The committee agreed on the need to adopt this approach as a
deterrent," Abdullah said on Wednesday.

Authorities have stepped up deportation of illegals, sending
14,000 back in the first seven months of the year and nearly
90,000 in 2000.

Tenaganita said its research showed that many foreigners
became illegal after arriving in Malaysia because those who
brought them in failed to do the necessary documentation.

It said there was no comprehensive policy or protection for
foreign laborers, adding a law proposed in 1995 to cover foreign
workers' rights was dropped without explanation.

Malaysia is also home to some 700,000 legal foreign workers,
but a weakened economy has led to job cuts and calls for curbs on
immigration.