FMT LETTER: From Tze Yeng Ng, via e-mail
In conjunction with World Refugee Day, we call on the government to
accord the right to work for refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia.
There are 98,100 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with United
Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia.
Ninty-two percent are from Burma’s different ethnic groups. 8,200 are
from Sri Lanka, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries.
Refugees and asylum seekers are considered “illegal immigrants” under
Malaysian law, specifically the Immigration Act 1959/63 (Act 155).
Unable to work legally in the country, they survive by working in the
informal and often unregulated work sectors, performing ‘3-D
work’(dirty, demanding, dangerous) without legal protection. This
increases their vulnerability to forced labor and human trafficking and
its negative consequences for ill-health.
This is evidenced in Health Equity Initiative’s research report
‘Forced Labour, Human Trafficking and Forced Labour: The Experiences of
Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Malaysia’. This research revealed a high
prevalence of forced labour and mental health distress whereby 61.2% of
refugees and asylum seekers in the 1,074 study population who had worked
full time had experienced forced labour.
About 70% of the respondents showed symptoms of Depression and 68%
showed signs of Anxiety. In-depth interviews revealed practices of
deception and fraud, withholding of wages, physical confinement,
non-payment of wages, threats of denunciation to authorities, induced
indebtedness, physical violence, and sale into ownership by their
employers.
The social and legal factors contributing to the mental ill health in
this population living and working side by side with Malaysians needs
to be urgently addressed. We therefore call on the Malaysian government
to:
(1) Accord refugees and asylum seekers the right to work
(2) Recognise refugees and asylum seekers and ratify the 1951 United
Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967
Protocol Regulate the labor sector to prevent and protect against
exploitation and forced labor
(3) Ensure that all persons who have experienced human trafficking
and forced labor, regardless of their legal status, have access to
appropriate legal, medical and protection services and that they will
not be refouled.
This letter is signed by 20 NGOs
Source : http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com
