By: Natalie Shobana Ambrose
theSun, Malaysia (pg 14) September 19, 2013
He would have paid a large sum of
money to an agent for legal documents before entering Malaysia as a documented
migrant worker. Yet last week, debt-ridden and jobless, he climbed the rooftop
of a two-storey building in an affluent neighbourhood in Kuala Lumpur and ended
his life.
A group gathered,
took photos and video footage. Some of the bystanders thought the public needed
to be "educated" and posted their photos and videos – after all if
the papers were publishing it why not them on social network sites.
Perhaps what came
after was far worse – the comments made in bad taste, one of which (to
paraphrase) was "jump and get it over with".
A man died but
because he was a migrant worker, it seems of less importance and value.
But what drove him
to climb that rooftop and think that his only option was to die?
According to news
reports, he was brought to work in a kopitiam which closed for a month and that
added drastically to his mounting debts. Where was his protection as an
employee and what are the responsibilities of his employers when they closed
shop?
Migrants legal or
illegal arrive on our shores debt-ridden.
Promised good
salaries, many are cheated and forced into what is now defined as modern-day
slavery. Not only are they to pay off the debts they owe for making that
journey here, they are here to earn for their families back home, yet they may
not even make enough to live, let alone send home.
Even though migrant
workers are a critical part of our economy (they make up 30% of the workforce
according to Human Rights Watch), little is done for their protection. If this
is the predicament of documented migrants, what more the illegals?
We may have our own
opinion about illegals not having rights but there has to be some form of
protection of the human being from abuse.
Time and time
again, those who champion migrant rights have called for our government to (at
the very least) ratify the Migrant Worker Convention and we are no closer to
signing it. Yet we sit on the United Nations Human Rights Council and allow
such abuse to happen on our soil?
We cherry pick as
we please. When we need migrant workers to do the work that we refuse to do –
the rubbish collection, waiting tables, cleaning, construction and security
jobs, that is when they are of use to us but we close our eyes to the abuse by
recruitment agencies.
We then blame them
for the high crime rate in the country. Not only do our laws allow for them to
be abused with little recourse for justice, we then blame them for societal
ills – ignoring that many of the crimes are carried out by Malaysians.
So at the beginning
of this month, the Home Ministry launched a crackdown on undocumented
immigrants. There are real fears that the crackdown will also affect refugees.
A fear that is warranted as Malaysia has not ratified the Refugee Convention
and vacillates on refugee status. Being identified as a transit country for
trafficking, and put on the Tier 2 of the US Department of State human
trafficking watch list, protection of the human being needs to be of upmost
concern.
In October,
Malaysia will stand before the world and present the universal periodic review
of our country's human rights track record. How will we fare?
Natalie hopes that Malaysians
and those in authority will value the people who are helping to build our
nation, even if they may not look like the Malaysians we know.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
