200 Filipinos detained but freed in Malaysia crackdown

KUALA LUMPUR — Some 200 Filipinos were “affected” by Malaysia’s crackdown on undocumented foreign workers here and were readily released through the representation made by the Philippine Embassy, the Philippine ambassador here said.

Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia Eduardo Malaya said the Filipinos were among the “manageable” 8,000 to 10,000 Philippine citizens that Malaysian authorities had tagged as over-stayers, most of whom have returned home through voluntary repatriation since June 2013.

“There have been only about 200 Filipinos who have been affected by the crackdown… launched earlier this year,” said Malaya in an interview with reporters at the Philippine Embassy here.

The envoy said the Filipinos, mostly workers in the retail and agricultural sector, were “taken into custody and processed while in detention.” He said the Filipinos were immediately released.

Earlier, one Filipino architect legally staying and working in Malaysia complained of maltreatment in the hands of local immigration authorities in Sabah on Jan. 21, the start of the nationwide crackdown. He was immediately released once his employer presented proof of his legal status here.

“The turnaround time is rather short. And it is also because when the immigration authorities asked us for travel documents, we are able to quickly provide them, so that the Filipino nationals would not stay a day longer in jail than necessary,” Malaya said.

In January, Malaysian authorities launched a nationwide immigration crackdown to weed out undocumented workers across its territories, affecting nationals from the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, Laos, Vietnam, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, India and Bangladesh.

Under Malaysian immigration law, overstaying foreigners must immediately return to their home countries.

Malaya said the problem involving undocumented Filipinos were “comparatively manageable,” given that other countries were looking after millions of their nationals lacking legal status in Malaysia.

“Well, there has been a highly publicized crackdown on illegal or undocumented individuals here in Malaysia. However, compared to the other foreign communities here, the number of Filipino nationals is relatively small. For instance, the Indonesians’ number is at least two million, and a significant number of them are without legal status, and similarly, people from Myanmar, and a lot others,” Malaya said.

He said the Philippine government was able to negotiate an arrangement with Malaysian authorities where Filipino over-stayers could seek voluntary repatriation and avoid arrest and detention. Some 7,000 Filipinos have returned home under this arrangement since the middle of 2013.

The Philippine Embassy also negotiated a lower immigration fine for undocumented Filipinos, from 30 Ringgit (P408) for every day of overstay to a flat rate 500 Ringgit (about P6,800).

“They come to us, we try to secure an exit permit for them, pay a much reduced fine. And after a few days or at least a week or two, they will be able to return to the Philippines, and hopefully, without spending a day in jail,” said Malaya.

There are an estimated 700,000 Filipinos across Malaysia, based on the figures of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

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