ZAMBOANGA — Illegal Filipino workers expelled from Malaysia’s Sabah state have been severely beaten by Malaysian police, a fact-finding body said yesterday.
Thousands of Filipinos, including women and children, remained in Malaysian detention centers “and suffering from inhumane conditions,” Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan, a member of the fact-finding committee on Sabah Deportees, said.
The fact-finding body gathered information from various government agencies, specifically the Inter-Agency Committee on Sabah deportees, and from the deportees themselves.
“Filipino detainees and those who were already deported to the Philippines have experienced severe beatings from Malaysian police while under detention,” she told reporters in the southern port city of Zamboanga which serves as the transit point for deported Filipinos.
Ilagan urged the government to provide the deportees with aid to ensure they would not return as illegals to Sabah.
She also pushed a House-level inquiry into the alleged abuses by Malaysian police. Malaysia announced a fresh crackdown on illegals early this year and thousands of Filipinos have been deported since.
After hearing the report of the Inter-Agency Committee on the Sabah deportees, Ilagan said these are just initial efforts and much remain to be done.
For instance, she said, there are no psycho-social services to check the traumatic effects of the deportation, especially on children. Health and other services are very limited and highly compartmentalized.
The committee, composed of the Association for the Rights of Children in South East Asia, Migrante International, and Gabriela Women’s Party, was formed to investigate alleged human rights abuses against undocumented Filipino workers and immigrants in Sabah.
Sabah, which lies between the Philippines to the north and Indonesia’s Kalimantan to the south, is a magnet for immigrants who work on construction sites and oil palm plantations.
Malaysian authorities say 130,000 illegal migrants are in Sabah but local politicians put the figure as high as 500,000.
According to the Philippine government, an estimated 200,000 Filipinos are living and working in Malaysia without valid visas and nearly 3,000 are in jail waiting to be deported.
The processing of passports are not only made difficult by the lack of personal documents but also by the fees being charged for them. Passport provision along with the profiling and skills training for the deportees are actually geared towards sending them back to Malaysia.
“This is a reflection of the IAC’s lack of effective concrete mechanisms and coordinated efforts to address the deplorable plight of the undocumented, as well as of the government’s labor export policy,” Ilagan said.
“What the government is not looking into is the human rights aspect of the deportation. Despite numerous media reports, the IAC has no investigations on the reported inhumane treatment experienced by our deported kababayans, especially the highly vulnerable sectors of women and children. There was a pregnant woman deportee at the DSWD Center yesterday who said there were many other pregnant women in detention cells. There were three young sisters who said there were many children and infants among detained deportees,” said Rep. Luz Ilagan.
Besides looking into the human rights aspect, the militant lady solon from Mindanao urged the government to strengthen the Inter-Agency Committee by adding the Commission on Human Rights into the picture, clarifying each agency’s functions, and providing the IAC’s necessary resources for Filipino migrants, especially the halaw or undocumented.
“But most importantly, the government should take a pro-active approach and address the root causes of the diaspora-deportation cycle: poverty and armed conflict in Mindanao. The government should address the peace process and resume the peace talks,” she explained.
Ilagan also reiterated the commitment of Gabriela Women’s Party in advancing migrants’ rights. “We vow to keep rights and welfare of Filipino migrants, especially of women and children, on top of our legislative agenda.”
Ilagan is author of House Resolution 683 “calling on Congress to investigate the crackdown’s effect on the human rights and welfare of the Sabah deportees and recommend measures that will ensure their humane repatriation and provision of decent social services and job opportunities once they arrive home.”
She bared she is planning to come up with another legislation that aims to institutionalize a comprehensive program for the undocumented.”
Ilagan is set to join the Fact Finding Team in its visit with more deportees yesterday before flying back to Manila.
By Charlie V. Manalo
AFP
source: The Daily Tribune
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