Why there are so many undocumented migrant workers — Joseph Paul | What You Think | Malay Mail
▻https://www.malaymail.com/news/what-you-think/2020/05/05/why-there-are-so-many-undocumented-migrant-workers-joseph-paul/1863413
In the wake of the recent raid on migrant workers in the Masjid India area, the Immigration Department seems serious about dealing with the situation of undocumented migrant workers (MW) in the country. It has meticulously identified those who are undocumented and taken them to detention centres where they would be cared for until they can be sent back to their home countries. Since that is not likely to happen in the near future, because of the travel restriction, we would like to suggest that this period be used to identify the root causes of “undocumentedness” which is a problem that the department has been unable to resolve over the last 20 years at least. Unless the root causes are clearly identified and addressed in a transparent manner, the current actions will be yet another exercise in futility.
Popular wisdom has it that the estimated three million or more undocumented MW who are in Malaysia had surreptitiously sneaked into the country or deliberately overstayed their visa and refused to return home. While this vies is plausible, it surely cannot account for the three milllion or more undocumented MW who are here currently. In the case of those who come from countries which have a common border with Malaysia, it is possible and indeed true that many would have sneaked into Malaysia through the many “jalan tikus” which migrant workers, agents, traffickers and others in the MW business (except the immigration authorities) seem to be aware of. However, there are also thousands of others who came by air, landing at official airports like KLIA (not some remote landing strips). Did these persons also sneak through the immigration checkpoints?
There are a number of other reasons why a MW is undocumented:
L’espace public bruisse de haine contre les #migrants en #Malaisie, où ils ont été appelés en masse pour faire des boulots de merde dans un contexte de chômage très faible... Le Covid a fait bouger ces lignes.