mazwin@thestar.com.my

The Home Ministry and Wisma Putra are expected to discuss the issue following calls from many sectors asking the government to allow the group to work here while waiting to be resettled in third countries.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hisham-muddin Tun Hussein said the matter was being considered because the refugees’ stay in Malaysia was only temporary.

“The suggestion might work but we need to look at it from all angles.

“The implications need to be made known before we decide. “My ministry cannot decide on this alone. We will engage the Foreign Ministry and probably even foreign missions as well as other relevant authorities to get their views,” he said yesterday.

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said the government needed to weigh all the pros and cons before implementing the new policy.

“We have to study this in detail. It will benefit the country if refugees with certain expertise are allowed to work while they are here,” he said.

Several parties, including the Malaysian Trades Union Congress have called on the government to allow refugees to work, particularly in labour-strapped sectors, instead of importing more foreign workers.

This would help to overcome the worker shortage and, at the same time, gain Malaysia international recognition as a humane country.

Refugees who are waiting to be resettled to third countries are not allowed to work but can take on odd-jobs.

The government announced recently that it planned to issue identification cards to refugees so that they would not be arrested as illegal immigrants.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/01/28/draft-deadlocked-over-key-issues.html

Negotiations on the draft of the ASEAN Framework Instrument on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers are in deadlock, with Malaysia refusing to agree on key points.

An official at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, Ben Perkasa Drajat, said Wednesday the draft was now going nowhere, after deadlock at the last meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in December last year.

“In fact, [at the last meeting] there was a contending draft to the one we had made based on the results of the Manila meeting,” he said at a discussion on the draft deliberations set up by independent organizations the Human Rights Working Group, the ASEAN People’s Center and the Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers.

On March 30, 2009, the Manila meeting agreed on some contentious key points to be included in
the draft.

Ben said the contending draft was proposed by a migrant worker-receiving country. Singapore and Malaysia are the region’s two biggest worker-receiving countries.

“As a result, the draft is now hanging by a thread,” he said.

The first draft was worked on by the governments of both Indonesia and the Philippines — the two largest migrant worker providers in the region — and had taken submissions from countries receiving migrant workers into consideration, he said.

All country participants at the Manila meeting agreed the instrument would be legally binding.

“But the contending draft said it should not be legally binding and undocumented migrant workers should not be included,” Ben said.

He said the Manila meeting had agreed to use the International Labour Organization’s definition of migrant workers, to include documented and undocumented migrant workers, and to include migrant workers’ families in the instrument.

The whole process from the sending of migrant workers to their transit points and on to their final destinations would be regulated and laws in migrant worker-sending and receiving countries must be abided by, he said.

Deputy director for international cooperation at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry Roostiawati said Malaysia had been the only stumbling block in the negotiation.

“But there has been some progress… after we began temporarily halting the sending of our migrant workers to Malaysia,” she said.

Roostiawati said the Malaysian home affairs minister visited a shelter for migrant workers at the Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia last week and asked Indonesia to lift the suspension.

Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development official Yap Swee Seng said it “doesn’t make sense” for Malaysia to refuse to accept that the instrument be legally binding.

He said all ASEAN countries, including Malaysia, must ratify the draft to protect migrant workers, like the conventions on child protection and elimination of discrimination against women.

Indonesian Migrant Workers Union secretary-general Chairul Hadi said an undocumented migrant worker should not be seen merely as someone who went overseas to improve his life.

Ben said the draft team had set options to find a way forward, as the ASEAN sociocultural community blueprint stipulated the instrument must be in place by 2015.
Indonesia urged to ratify UN convention on migrant workers
Friday, February 12, 2010 10:36 WIB | National | http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1265945800/indonesia-urged-to-ratify-un-convention-on-migrant-workers

Bandung, W Java (ANTARA News) – The ASEAN Human Rights Committee renewed Thursday its call for Indonesia to immediately ratify the UN convention on the protection of migrant workers and their families.

“Indonesian migrant workers have so far not received adequate protection so they have often been treated arbitrarily,” Indonesian representative to the committee Rafendi Djamin said.

If Indonesia ratified the convention it would get much benefit in that and it could pressure the governments of the countries where Indonesian migrant workers were employed to ratify the convention, he said.

“We can argue with them. If all of us respect human rights and democracy they must ratify the UN convention too,” he said.

Meanwhile, Roostiawati of the Directorate of Overseas Manpower Placement at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry said the ministry was still analyzing the pluses and minuses of ratifying the convention.

“We cannot determine when we will ratify the convention because we must be careful,” she said.

One of the considerations why Indonesia had not as yet ratified the convention was that none of the 42 countries employing Indonesian migrant workers had ratified it, she said.

“If we ratify it can we be sure that our migrant workers will be protected?” she asked.

Address:  433 A, 1^st Floor, Jalan 5/46, 46000 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Telephone: +6 03 7784 3525                                Fax: +6 03 7784 3526

Email: suaram@suaram.net Web: www.suaram.net

Press Statement: 15 October 2009

Launch of Nationwide Petition Campaign for the Recognition of Refugees in Malaysia

In conjunction with the exhibition opening of No Refuge: Burmese Refugees in Malaysia, SUARAM is also launching a nationwide campaign to collect signatures for a petition entitled, “Sign the Refugee Convention and Stop the Arrests, Detention and Deportation of Refugees!”

The petition has five demands to the Malaysian Government:

1.      Ensure that all law enforcement agencies (in particular RELA, Police and Immigration) respect UNHCR documents and refrain from arresting holders of these documents.

2.      The UNHCR is given free and full access to asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons in all Immigration Detention Depots and Prisons so that they can verify if asylum claims are genuine and take measures to assist refugees. Recognized refugees should be released into the official care of the UNHCR while durable solutions are found.

3.      Take measures necessary to fully respect the international customary law of non-refoulement, which prohibits the return of people to places where they may face persecution or threat to their life or freedoms.

4.      Adopt laws and regulations concerning the status of asylum seekers and refugees, as stated in the recommendations by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), of which Malaysia is party to.

5.      Ratify the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol.

Signatures for the petition will be collected in two ways, via collection of written and online signatures. The online petition is hosted at www.petitiononline.com/1951Conv.

SUARAM hopes to collect at least 10,000 signatures from Malaysians by 31 May 2010. The online and written signatures will be compiled and submitted to the Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak on World Refugee Day, 20 June 2010.

Refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons have been an invisible part of the Malaysian social fabric for decades, particularly those from Burma. However, they remain unrecognised by the Malaysian Government and are subject to human rights violations by citizens and law enforcement authorities alike. As the world pays attention to the human rights violations that have occurred in our country, it is time Malaysians recognise that refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons cannot be subject to such an inhumane state of living and we are responsible for their lives while they live here.

For more information, contact Temme Lee at 03-77843525 or visit www.suaram.net.

__._,_.___

This document highlights key issues affecting all migrants.

Download UPR – MWG/ JUMP Report

WEEKEND FORMATION MEETING
Migrant & Refugee Desk, Melaka-Johor Diocese

Migrant & Refugee Desk, Melaka-Johor Diocese will be organizing a Weekend Formation Meeting on the 18th and 19th of October, 2008 for the Melaka District at the Brothers Bungalow, Pantai Kundor, Melaka. The purpose of this meeting is to provide formation for lay people on matters relating to migrants and refugees as well as to consolidate our ministry of serving migrants and refugees in the parishes of the district.

Highlights
Sharing of experiences of working with migrants and refugees
Spirituality – linking our efforts to help migrants and refugees with faith.
Analysis of Melaka migrant and refugee situation
Reflective integration
Action: Our response
Eucharistic Celebration

In order to serve the migrants better, Migrant & Refugee Desk is planning a survey exercise of migrants and refugees in the Melaka district. This exercise will help us identify migrant and refugee persons, the places where they live and their needs. This survey will be conducted for three weeks beginning 9th October, 2008.

If you are interested to participate in the weekend formation meeting and/or the survey, please contact:

Br Mark Aloysius, SJ
markasj@jesuits.net

These are the recent issues of the migrant & refugee newsletter from the Migrant & Refugee Desk, Melaka-Johor Diocese.

The purpose of this newsletter is to raise consciousness regarding issues pertaining to migration. Perhaps you will find some information that is pertinent to your own work or ministry.

Most Recent Issue:

August 2008

Archives

February 2008

October 2007