Australia To Be Flooded With Refugees From Malaysia

Which Way To Pay

Many refugees in Malaysia have indicated that they will consider paying to be smuggled into Australia as they believe they will receive better treatment on their return to the country through the new asylum seeker swap deal. The new agreement, costing $292 million, was signed in Kuala Lumpur at the beginning of the week, stipulating that the first 800 asylum seekers caught coming into Australia will be exported back to Malaysia in 72 hours.

Anyone caught after this initial quota will be held in transit facilities for any time up to 45 days, until which time they will be moved back into the Malaysian community and given work rights, and access to health care and education.

The deal has especially been criticised by Amnesty International, who claim the swap in practice will encourage refugees into boats, and will even create an internal hierarchy in the refugee system, with two brackets with different rights. There are already 90,000 refugees in Malaysia, who are living without these benefits, with many having to turn to illegal work in order to provide for their families.

The new agreement could actually act as an incentive for refugees to take boats to Australia, rather than the intended deterrent.

There have been reports from Tamil asylum seekers, who have been taking refuge in Malaysia for several years, claiming that they are angry that those who break the law and pay smugglers to take them to Australia will end up with more rights than those who do not. The scheme could be interpreted as rewarding the dishonest for abusing the system, but as the plan was hurriedly made in desperation, cracks emerging are inevitable. 

UN officer endorses setting up of MACC's video interview rooms

nst.com

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's move to set up video interview rooms (VIR) is an important and appropriate measure.

This endorsement came from Desmostenes Chryssikos, crime prevention and criminal justice officer of the Corruption and Economic Crime Section, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The setting up of the VIR was in line with the UN Convention on Corruption, Chryssikos said after the closing of a three-day UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) at the MACC Academy here yesterday.

"This set-up is effective and protects witnesses. It is a positive step forward and Malaysia is the second country after the Independent Commission Against Corruption Hong Kong to set up this system of interviewing witnesses."


Chryssikos said the system would also encourage others with knowledge of corruption cases to come forward since they knew they would be protected.

He added that the UN was ready to help MACC monitor the VIR system as well as provide guidance.

MACC Academy assistant commissioner Abdul Razak Hamzah said the objective of the UNCAC, attended by 19 foreign and 14 local participants, was to equip and train them to become proficient.

"This convention is legally binding on the 156 state parties or countries which had ratified the UNCAC.

"Malaysia has complied with most of the 71 articles in the UNCAC. The Whistle Blowers Act 2010 was the latest addition," he said.

Amnesty plan for illegal immigrants to take off on Aug 1

thestar online

PUTRAJAYA: Aug 1 is the new date for the start of the 6P amnesty programme for illegal immigrants.
The exercise, which was supposed to have kicked off Monday, was postponed to make way for the implementation of the biometric registration of legal foreign workers, from Wednesday until July 31.

Home Ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Mahmood Adam, in a statement Tuesday, said besides laying the groundwork of the 6P plan, the biometric registration was to deal with legal foreign workers who ran away from their employers with the intention of being given amnesty through other employers.

The 6P programme entails registration, whitening, forgiveness, monitoring, enforcement and deportation of illegal immigrants.

Mahmood said with the biometric registration, the Immigration Department would be able to identify legal foreign workers who had run away from their employers, including those who had removed their identification documents and were using different identities.

Those identified as such would not be allowed to participate in the whitening process and would be advised to return to their original employers or be deported.

Some 1.8 million legal foreign workers are employed in the country.

"The registration of foreign workers will be fully implemented by the Immigration Department at its offices throughout the peninsular starting tomorrow (Wednesday).

"All employers are required to ensure that all foreign workers employed by them register through the biometric system. No fee will be imposed," he added. - Bernama

Registration of illegal immigrants nationwide put off for now

thestar online

KUALA LUMPUR: The registration of illegal foreign workers nationwide ahead of an amnesty exercise has been shelved indefinitely until all parties are ready for it, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

“We have decided to postpone the registration of illegal workers under the biometric system until further notice.

“There are several technical issues and national security matters that we have to sort out first,” he told reporters yesterday.

Hishammuddin said the exercise would be held only after all parties were sure that the process could be carried out without any glitch.

He cited the example of the introduction of the biometric system at 67 immigration entry points nationwide recently when minor glitches marred the whole exercise.

“The process went on smoothly except for two entry points between Malaysia and Singapore. We learnt that one or two glitches can affect the entire process,” he said.

Hishammuddin did not fix a time frame on when the amnesty would be implemented.

The exercise, aimed at encouraging an estimated two million illegal workers to register by being fingerprinted via a biometric system, was supposed to have started yesterday.

It was meant to grant them amnesty so that they could work legally or leave the country without being caught and jailed.

Burmese refugees joyful despite persecution, say visitors

Associate Baptist Press

By Jim White

Tuesday, July 05, 2011 KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (ABP) -- Baptist World Alliance President John Upton was part of a seven-member delegation to visit refugees near the border between Thailand and Myanmar while en route to meetings this week in Malaysia. Upton, executive director of the Baptist General Association, described meeting Blooming Night, a Myanmar refugee living just across the Thai border who has spent most of her 50-something years hiding in the jungle. When she isn’t in actual hiding, she is bringing relief to her people -- the  Karen -- through physical supplies and through the gospel of Jesus Christ. “She is a missionary to her own people,” Upton said. The Karen are among several minority ethnic groups in the remote mountains and jungles of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) who have been fighting government control since the country’s independence from Britain in 1948 – one of the world’s longest-running separatist insurgencies. For decades thousands of refugees have fled the conflict, landing in camps just across the border in Thailand. The Thailand Burma Border Consortium, a non-governmental organization that works in the region, estimates as many as 150,000 people live in temporary settlements. Thai officials say they want to return them to Myanmar. “The conditions there are like something you would imagine from 200 years ago,” Upton said. Patsy Davis, executive director of the BWA’s women’s department and organizer of the trip, agreed the conditions are grim. “The people literally have nothing. Nothing. We went to offer humanitarian aid, but mostly we went to encourage Blooming Night. We wanted to show her that Baptist women around the world support her.” An estimated 30 to 40 percent of Karens are Christians, and Davis said for many of the refugees, “Their only joy is Jesus.” Davis said the number of churches in the camp has increased from 12 two years ago to 20, in addition to the church where the BWA delegation worshiped. That worship service, attended by about 500 people, was a wet one, she and Upton said. It had rained torrentially all night but had cleared by morning. The sanctuary was flooded when debris clogged the river and it spilled over its banks. “Water started coming in the back of the church,” said Upton. “During a prayer, it would advance another pew. During one long prayer it moved up three rows. It came all the way up to the front row of pews. People in the back were sitting in water almost knee-deep and nobody knew how deep it was going to get. But nobody left.” He added, laughing, “It started receding while I was preaching, so I figure I preached the flood back.” The singing in the two-hour service is what impressed Davis and Upton most, as well as the palpable joy in the faces of the worshipers. “One lady, whose husband and child were killed by the soldiers, greeted us with such a smile you would never know the tragedies she experienced,” Davis said. The day started at 5 a.m. “when they were singing during the prayer time,” Davis added. “At 6:30 was the women’s Bible study, and that was just the beginning of the day!” Davis said the churches in the camps include descendants of Karen converted to Christianity by Ann and Adoniram Judson, American Baptist missionaries who spent 40 years in Burma during the first half of the 19th century. “They [the churches] learned well the lesson of sacrifice,” said Davis. “Three of the 20 churches gave an offering of $500 to the BWA women’s department. These are people who have nothing who did this. We should be totally ashamed.” Christians in the camps have started a Bible college and seminary and are ministering to abused women and children. In addition, Blooming Night and others have helped resettle refugees in other countries, including the United States.