PH to make representations for arrested OFWs in Malaysia, says diplomat

FILE PHOTO

KUALA LUMPUR – A ranking Filipino diplomat in Malaysia on Saturday said the Philippine Embassy would make representations with relevant Malaysian authorities for Filipinos who have been arrested and reportedly maltreated in the crackdown against undocumented workers here.

“We will make representations with the relevant Malaysian authorities for everyone,” Consul General Medardo Macaraig told reporters.

Macaraig said that the Malaysian government has yet to send the embassy a report on the crackdown that began on Jan. 21.

“By report I mean official notification from the Malaysian government,” Macaraig said.

He said that the embassy has dispatched another diplomat to Sabah to check on reports that Filipinos have been arrested in the crackdown.

So far, the only report received by the embassy was the one involving Resty Rosales, an architect who complained of maltreatment following his arrest in a raid on Tuesday when he failed to show proof of his regular status.

Macaraig said Rosales has the proper working documents in Malaysia.

Macaraig said that the Filipino community in Sabah remained calm.

“We have spoken to the other Filipinos there and the report to me is they are not tense there. They are calm. But this does not mean there is no crackdown,” Macaraig said, adding: “If there is something happening, they would inform us (embassy) and from there we will start our work.”

Macaraig said that news reports in Malaysia claimed that there were already some 1,000 illegal immigrants arrested since Tuesday, among them Filipinos.

“But we don’t know if they are Filipinos until we are notified by the Malaysian government, and we see and interview them if they are really Filipinos,” Macaraig said.

Macaraig said there were some 450,000 Filipinos living and working across Malaysia.

The embassy has also provided consular services for Filipinos such as issuing passports and birth certificates with the help of the National Statistics Office (NSO), he said.

According to Macaraig, more than 10,000 Filipinos have been given passports in 2013.

“We also requested their employees to fix their papers,” Macaraig said.

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