A night out with Rela

Preserving the peace?

Mien Ly is an independent filmmaker, and went on the raid as a translator for a documentary filmmaker from Australia. She has been given permission by the filmmaker to write about her experience. Before she witnessed the raid, a refugee activist from Malaysian human rights organisation Suaram told her that Rela would be on their best behaviour when being watched by the media.

By Mien Ly, The Nut Graph

"BUKA pintu! Buka pintu!" shout the volunteers through the grill door, into the hallway of the shop lots in Pudu. They are from Rela, a civil volunteer corp formed by the Malaysian government in 1972 to help preserve "peace and national security". They are conducting a raid on undocumented migrants here, in the middle of Ramadan, on 2 Sept 2009.

A man comes sleepily to the grill door. The three Rela volunteers, dressed in their green combat-like uniforms, demand that he opens the door fast or they will cut it. They speak in Bahasa Malaysia. The man seems to understand them — he slowly comes out of his daze and realises what is going on. He responds in English, "Wait, wait, I go get the keys."

When he retreats, another Rela volunteer arrives on the scene with a cutter. The Rela volunteers cut the lock on the grill door. When the man returns with his keys, the Rela men say to him in Malay, "You're slow, we had to cut."

They proceed down the hallway, and knock on all the other doors. Another door opens, revealing a senior man and teenage boy, both equally dazed from being awakened. The Rela volunteers demand to see their identity cards (ICs) or any documents. The older man asks to see a search permit. The volunteers say, "The police are down there, the immigration [officers] are down there, go ask permits from them.

"The teenage boy produces their ICs — MyKads. "My son," the old man explains when the Rela volunteers ask about the boy. "I live with my family." The Rela volunteers demand that the older man open all the doors to see if he is harbouring any undocumented migrants or what they call "Pati" — pendatang asing tanpa izin, or literally "foreign migrants without permission". No "Pati" is found here. A Rela volunteer apologises for the inconvenience. The rest go upstairs to knock on more doors. The older man swears in Cantonese under his breath at this intrusion, and possibly also because he now has to buy another lock.

At another apartment, a group of women are awakened from their sleep, asked to change out of their pyjamas and bring their passports down for immigration officers to check. Five men in Rela uniforms wait outside their room, constantly knocking, and sometimes threatening to knock the door down if they don't hurry up. The women only comprehend when a Rela volunteer speaks in Mandarin to them. One woman asks, "Can't you check now? I've to leave early in the morning to Penang for work." The volunteer responds that he is unable to check their passports — only immigration personnel can — and that it will only take five minutes. The clock on the wall says 2am. The women grudgingly oblige, change into t-shirts and shorts and go downstairs with a Rela volunteer.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.thenutgraph.com/

OR

Malaysian-Today 

Burmese Migrant Workers Arrested in Malaysian Crackdown

by peacerunning


Malaysian authorities have arrested about 100 Burmese migrant workers in their latest crackdown on foreign labor.

The arrested migrants include 50 Mon, according to Roi Mon, joint chairman of the Mon Refugee Organization. Twenty Karen are among the arrested Burmese, said Mahn Sein Than, chairman of the Karen Refugee Organization.

Hundreds of other Burmese migrants who escaped arrest have cut their working hours drastically because of fears of new raids. The current crackdown began on June 1.

About 1,000 Burmese migrants work in restaurants and other businesses in one area alone of Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown, in Petaling Street.

Malaysian authorities have reportedly threatened restaurant owners in Petaling Street that their licenses will be cancelled if they are found to employ foreign workers. “There are longer any Burmese working in the restaurants there,” said Roi Mon.

One Burmese woman, War Yu, said: Two of my friends had to return to Burma last week because they were laid off.”
According to the Kuala Lumpur-based Burma Workers’ Rights Protection Committee, about 500,000 Burmese migrants work in Malaysia, legally and illegally.

The Malaysian government announced last December that the country no longer needs foreign labor and stepped up its efforts to deport migrant workers.

Meanwhile, the Network of Action for Migrants in Malaysia and MAP Foundation in Thailand have called on the Malaysian and Thailand governments to protect the rights of Burmese migrants and ensure that migrants can exercise their labor, social, cultural, economic and political rights.

The groups called in a joint statement, released yesterday, for a halt to unjust, discriminatory and unconstitutional policies on migrants. Burmese migrants were in a desperate situation because of the global economic crisis, they said

Irrawaddy

16 Chin Refugees were arrested, the third time surprised raid at Jalan Imbi

There was unexpected immigration raid at Myanmar store at Jalan Imbi, Kuala Lumpur on this evening and 16 Chin Refugees were arrested. This is the third time surprised raid at Jalan Imbi

28 July, 2009

There was unexpected immigration raid at Myanmar store at Jalan Imbi, Kuala Lumpur on this evening and 16 Chin Refugees were arrested. This is the third time surprised raid at Jalan Imbi. According to the confirm information, 16 Chin refugees were arrested inside Myanmar store while they were shopping. But until now we don’t have any further information about where they were taken to.

On the first raid, more than 170 Chin refugees were arrested when police with plain cloths raided on April, 2009 in this area, and they were detained in Bukit Jalil lock up. After about one week in police lock up, some were released but
some were transferred to Immigration camp.
Last month, about 22 Chin Refugees were arrested at the same place. That was second evening raid with plain cloths. They all were detained at Bukit Jalil lock up and some are released by the help of UNHCR, CRC and ACR.

Illegal immigrants: Keep Tabs on RELA and Employers

RELA officers have been actively involved in helping the Immigration authorities detain illegal immigrants. Unfortunately, there have been many complaints of RELA officers abusing their powers during this raid even to the extent of tearing up valid passports and stealing the possessions of the hapless foreigners. This has even been reported by tourists who have entered Malaysia with all the necessary documentation. While these allegations have been denied by the RELA authorities, one tends to wonder why the complaints keep flowing in. It is about time a thorough investigation is made into the matter instead of sweeping the matter under the carpet.
Then there are the cases of employers who are employing illegal immigrants. One hears from the local and international press, that the illegal workers are detained and even deported. The question that baffles me is why the employers are then allowed to carry on their business after paying a fine. Obviously this is not sufficient deterrent to the employers as many of them resume employing illegal immigrants; that includes the deported ones who were previously in their employ.

It is as if the authorities want to perpetuate the cycle of detain-deport-detain because some people tend to benefit from it. I would suggest that the employers’ business license be revoked if the authorities concerned mean business. In order to do this there has to be close work between the relevant government agencies i.e. the Immigration, Human Resources Ministry and the Police .Somehow I don’t see RELA in the picture..

By catherina cherian, on 18-04-2008 09:43