No abuse of Pinoy detainees — Sabah exec

10/06/2008

The Sabah state government has downplayed claims that authorities had mistreated Filipino illegal immigrants while under detention before they were deported.

State Secretary Datuk Sukarti Wakiman, who headed an operation to flush out illegal foreign workers last month, said he had not received any report on the allegation.

“If there is any report on the allegation at an early stage of the operation which began on Aug. 7, we will act on it,” Bernana news agency quoted Sukarti as saying after sending off Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at the Kota Kinabalu Airport yesterday.

The official said actions would continue to be taken against illegal immigrants through integrated operations or normal procedures by the authorities.

“If they (foreign media) are not happy with what we are doing, they can raise the matter,” Sukarti stressed, adding foreign media like to play up issues involving illegal immigrants.

A fact-finding body the other day noted that illegal Filipino workers expelled from Malaysia’s Sabah state have been severely beaten by police.

Thousands of Filipinos, including women and children, remained in Malaysian detention centers “and suffering from inhumane conditions,” Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan, also a member of the Fact-Finding Committee on Sabah Deportees, said.

“Filipino detainees and those who were already deported to the Philippines have experienced severe beatings from Malaysian police while under detention,” she told reporters in the southern port city of Zamboanga which serves as the transit point for deported Filipinos.

Ilagan urged the government to provide the deportees with aid to ensure they would not return as illegals to Sabah.

She also pushed a House-level inquiry into the alleged abuses by Malaysian police.

Malaysia announced a fresh crackdown on illegals early this year and thousands of Filipinos have been deported since.

The committee, composed of the Association for the Rights of Children in South East Asia, Migrante International, and Gabriela Women’s Party, was formed to investigate alleged human rights abuses against undocumented Filipino workers and immigrants in Sabah.

The state, which lies between the Philippines to the north and Indonesia’s Kalimantan to the south, is a magnet for immigrants who work on construction sites and oil palm plantations.

Malaysian authorities said 130,000 illegal migrants are in Sabah but local politicians put the figure as high as 500,000.

According to the Philippine government, an estimated 200,000 Filipinos are living and working in Malaysia without valid visas and nearly 3,000 are in jail waiting to be deported. With AFP

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