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Malaysian
Deputy PM: 150,000 Migrants Arrested Last Year
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| Mahathir:
Illegal immigrants are causing problems for Malaysia
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KUALA
LUMPUR, March 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Malaysia
arrested 158,420 illegal immigrants last year, parliament was told
Tuesday, as a major new crackdown moved into its third week in the
eastern state of Sabah, news agencies reported.
The
2001 figure was more than 37,000 up on the previous year, while in
just the first two months of this year 15,037 Indonesians had been
arrested, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Filipinos
have been the main targets of the latest drive in Sabah state on
Borneo island, however, where 7,067 squatter houses have been
demolished in a two-week blitz. Of the more than 4,500 people
arrested there, police said Tuesday that 3,841 were Filipinos and
697 were Indonesians.
The
aggressive operation aims to evict some 30,000 illegal immigrants
from Sabah. "We will continue indefinitely, to get them
all out," a police spokesman told AFP, saying those arrested
would be held in detention camps before being deported. The
action in Sabah is in line with a tougher approach throughout
Malaysia, which is home to 750,000 legal foreign workers and
hundreds of thousands of mainly Indonesian illegal immigrants.
The
government has said it aims to deport about 10,000 Indonesian
illegal immigrants every month. While Malaysia says illegal
migrants have contributed to a growth in crime and other social
problems, the tough new line is also seen as a bid to protect jobs
for locals in a time of economic hardship.
Last
month, Jaafar Carrim, the Malaysian Employers’ Federation
president was quoted by the Malaysian newspaper, the Star, saying
that the move to restrict Indonesians to plantation or household
work will disrupt workforce planning and corporate operations.
Malaysian
employers have urged the government to relax the clampdown on
Indonesian migrant labor which was sparked by workers rioting, the
paper said. "There is no guarantee that those from other
countries will not create any social problems. We hope the
government would give employers more flexibility in recruiting
cost-effective workers," said Carrim.
Jaafar
said Indonesians were more suitable because of the culture, language
and working environment shared by the two countries. "Problems
of communication and the lack of skills are anticipated with the
recruitment of non-Indonesian foreign workers," he added.
The
government early this month clamped down on Indonesian workers
following a factory riot by 400 Indonesian textile workers on
January 17 over police drug tests on co-workers. Three days later,
more than 70 Indonesian construction workers armed with machetes
went on a rampage at Cyberjaya, a hi-tech suburb south of Kuala
Lumpur.
The
government said it would only hire Indonesians as maids and
plantation workers and take workers from Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal,
Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and India to fill positions in other
sectors.
Malaysian
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad earlier said that the measure would
have to be adopted due to a series of troubles from Indonesian
workers creating problems for Malaysia. "Indonesian workers
have been giving us many problems, sneaking into the country. When
caught they become violent. We cannot accept such behavior," he
told reporters.
Mahathir
said in the future, the government would give priority to
non-Indonesian foreign workers who have not created too many
problems for Malaysia. He said Malaysia was unhappy over the
behavior of foreign workers, who created problems in this country
and such workers would be speedily deported to their country of
origin.
Malaysia
since last year, limited the employment of Bangladeshi workers. Many
of them were involved in robberies and their marrying local
Malaysian girls has not pleased the authorities.
The
foreign workers were guests in this country and as such, they should
respect this country's laws, the Prime Minister said, adding that it
was the government's wish to reduce the number of foreign workers.
However, this could not be done due to the shortage of local workers
in certain sectors.
Malaysian
Home Ministry Secretary-General Aseh Che Mat last month said
Indonesians made up 566,983 out of 769,566 legal foreign workers in
the country. 
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