Malaysia drive to deport migrants
Malaysia will launch a new operation to deport an estimated 500,000 illegal migrants from the country. The interior minister says 100,000 reservists will be drafted in to help with the operation.
Previous attempts to drive out undocumented workers have led to allegations of human rights abuses.
Malaysia is torn between its dependency on foreign labour and the urge to blame illegal migrants for the country's ills, particularly crime.
Illegal immigration operations in August 2002 and March 2005 led to hundreds of thousands of workers, most of them Indonesian, fleeing to avoid being jailed, fined or whipped.
But according to the country's Interior Minister, Mohammed Rajid Sheikh Ahmad, some 500,000 undocumented workers remain in Malaysia - about 2% of the country's population.
Crackdown needed
He said that if the authorities did not act from time to time, illegal migrants would feel able to do as they wished.
No date has been set for the pending crackdown.
The government wants to see foreign labour, which accounts for up to a quarter of Malaysia's workforce, properly regulated.
However it has done little to reduce the demand which drives illegal immigration.
It rarely punishes errant employers, while the process of recruiting foreigners legally remains expensive and bureaucratic.
Human rights groups in Malaysia are likely to be alarmed by the news that volunteer reservists will once again play the key role in any anti-migrant operation.
Source: Jonathan Kent
July 14, 2006
BBC News, Kuala Lumpur
New crackdown on illegals
Malaysia has announced plans to arrest up to one million people in its latest crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Hundreds of officials will be involved in the operation, which follows last year's controversial push to round up, whip and deport hundreds of thousands of illegal workers.
"We have made early preparations related to the detention centres and other needs. We will decide the date of the crackdown later," Home Affairs Minister Mohamad Radzi Sheikh Ahmad was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.
Mohamad Radzi said enforcement officials from the immigration and police departments would target factories hiring immigrants and foreigners conducting business illegally.
400,000 deported
"If we do not conduct such operations from time to time, the illegals will feel that they can do as they wish in this country," he said.
Mohamad Radzi said some 400,000 illegals had been deported so far, adding that some 500,000 to one million illegal workers are still in the country.
There are about 1.8 million legal foreign workers in the country, he said.
Malaysia has launched several crackdowns since 1992 on illegal workers, most of whom come from impoverished parts of Southeast Asia.
But each one led to a labour shortage followed by a new wave of illegal immigration - a pattern which was apparent after last year's blitz.
Malaysia is one of the largest importers of foreign labour in Asia. Foreign workers, both legal and illegal, number around 2.6 million of its 10.5 million workforce, officials say.
AFP
Previous crackdowns on migrant workers in Malaysia
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