CDIR Update No. 64

June 27, 2008

CDIR Condemns Malaysia's expulsion plan Against Immigrants

Los Angeles- The Coalition in Defense of Immigrant Rights (CDIR)-USA strongly condemns Malaysia’s plan to chase out tens of thousands of Filipino and Indonesian illegal immigrants.

The CDIR-USA said that immigrants include a large number of asylum seekers and refugees who had fled from the conflict-ridden Mindanao region in the southern Philippines to Malaysia's eastern Sabah state on Borneo island.

In addition,the CDIR noted that many are stateless people and migrants who had lived in Sabah for more than a decade, including children who now risk being expelled. The CDIR said that the simplistic and arbitrary action of mass crackdown by the federal government in addressing such a serious and complex issue will result into serious human rights and humanitarian crisis,"

The Malaysian authorities is notoriously famous for cruel treatment of detainees, punishment including flogging under immigration laws, and lack of adequate health care in detention for women, children and other vulnerable groups.

Anti-Immigrant Persecution

In 2002, it said reports indicated that mass deportations of undocumented migrants led to deaths of children due to dehydration and disease in Sabah's detention centers. Thousand of Muslim Filipinos were deported back to the Philippines.

The CDIR warned the the Malaysian government to cautiously study the migrant issue in Sabah carefully before taking any action.News spources said that Malaysian government officials were not immediately available for comment.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak announced Tuesday that authorities will soon launch a massive operation to flush out and deport foreigners without travel or identification documents from Sabah, which borders both the Philippines and Indonesia.

Authorities estimated there are some 130,000 illegals in Sabah. But the state's politicians insist the real figure is several times that, and claim that foreigners outnumber Malaysians in some provinces. In its last crackdown in 2005, the government deported 300,000 illegal immigrants, mostly Indonesians, from Sabah.

The Philippines have a claim on Sabah for its was a part of the Sultanate of Sulu and was ceded to the Britisn North Borneo Company in the 1800’s. The Government of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is silent on the upcoming Malaysian crackdown on Filipino immigrants.

President Diosdado Macapagal( The father of the present president Gloria-Arroyo) revived the Philippine claim to Sabah in 1962. Dictator Marcos even planned to invade Sabah in 1967 and solidffy the Phlippine claim to North Borneo. The Jabidah massacre of 68 Muslim recruits throw a monkey wrench to the plan in 1968.

It seems that PGMA abandoned the claim altogether. She was very silent about the persecution of Filipino immigrants in Malaysia and the fate of other OFW's abroad. There are more tha 12 million Filipino OFW abroad.

For more information call Art P. Garcia of cdir-usa at (213)241-0906 or email at cdir_usa@yahoo.com or visit our blogspot at alliancephilippines.blogspot.com

he Coalition in Defense of Immigrant Rights (CDIR)-USA strongly condemns Malaysia’s plan to chase out tens of thousands of Filipino and Indonesian illegal immigrants.

The Malaysian authorities is notoriously famous for cruel treatment of detainees, punishment including flogging under immigration laws, and lack of adequate health care in detention for women, children and other vulnerable groups.