CHR, migrants group to check Sabah deportees plight
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is set to recommend policies to the national government in a bid to protect the rights of the Filipino migrants in Malaysia after it conducts its investigation into the situation of deportees from Sabah.
Lawyer Manuel Mamauag, CHR Director in Region 9, said CHR Commissioner Cecilia Quisumbing would be visiting Zamboanga City on Friday to check on the status of the deportees sent home by Malaysia every week.
Malaysia started its mass deportation of Filipino illegal immigrants way back in 1997, but Mamauag noted that "their complaints of physical and sexual abuses, discrimination by Malaysian authorities, and being kept in sub-standard detention facilities remain."
Malaysia initiated a crackdown against illegal aliens after receiving complaints from their own constituents of lesser job opportunities available for them, since Filipinos are now dominating the labor force, even at meager salaries being offered.
Treatment during detention
Mamauag said the CHR is more concerned with how Filipinos are being treated once arrested and detained.
"Deportation must comply with international requirements. Ngayon, pinapasakay lang ng barko, walang dalang mga papeles, nahiwalay pa sa kanilang mga anak o asawa. At sabi sa amin, no less than six months pa sila nakukulong bago sila i-deport," Mamauag said.
Quisumbing is set to confer with CHR officials in Zamboanga City on Friday and would be visiting the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Center for Displaced Persons at Barangay Mampang.
Members of Migrante International, a group advocating for the rights of overseas Filipino migrants, would be arriving with Quisumbing.
Since none of the deportees interviewed earlier by the CHR is willing to file formal complaints against the Malaysian authorities, the CHR is set to document their experiences and recommend measures to the national government to assure that no Filipino would again suffer in the hands of the foreign authorities.
Fact-finding mission
Migrante International, meanwhile, will lead its 3rd National Fact-Finding Mission (NFFM) on October 2-6.
The group said that Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan and lawyer Claire Padilla of the National Union of People’s Lawyers and Gender Rights are set to join the team.
Migrante International chairperson Connie Bragas-Regalado told abs-cbnNEWS.com that the team will also probe the “undocumented casualties of the Mindanao conflict” and the “victims of the Arroyo government’s labor-export program” as well as its failure to provide jobs and livelihood in the region.
The DSWD in Zamboanga City reported that 35,000 Filipinos were deported from Sabah during the first eight months of they year. The agency is expecting more than 200,000 by the end of the year.
“The massive deportation of migrants from Sabah continues, hidden from the public eye. What the Arroyo government refuses to acknowledge, Migrante International will once again expose. We hope to bring aid and attention to our OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] who only sought to escape the poverty and war in Mindanao,” said Regalado who is also the secretary-general of the International Migrants Alliance.
The 1st and 2nd NFFM on Sabah deportees held by Migrante International in 2002 and 2005 revealed that OFWs suffered inhumane treatment and sexual harassment while inside jam-packed prison; deportees who arrived in the Philippines remained homeless and lacked livelihood support from the government; women became victims of sex trafficking; and, there was a high number of “stateless children” or children of migrants born without documents.
Despite these problems, the group found out that almost 40% of migrants wanted to return to Sabah for work.
“We expect that the situation has worsened because the heightened military offensives in Mindanao drive more and more Filipinos away from their homeland and push them into risky situations in neighboring foreign shores,” said Regalado. With a report from abs-cbnNEWS.com
Lawyer Manuel Mamauag, CHR Director in Region 9, said CHR Commissioner Cecilia Quisumbing would be visiting Zamboanga City on Friday to check on the status of the deportees sent home by Malaysia every week.
Malaysia started its mass deportation of Filipino illegal immigrants way back in 1997, but Mamauag noted that "their complaints of physical and sexual abuses, discrimination by Malaysian authorities, and being kept in sub-standard detention facilities remain."
Malaysia initiated a crackdown against illegal aliens after receiving complaints from their own constituents of lesser job opportunities available for them, since Filipinos are now dominating the labor force, even at meager salaries being offered.
Treatment during detention
Mamauag said the CHR is more concerned with how Filipinos are being treated once arrested and detained.
"Deportation must comply with international requirements. Ngayon, pinapasakay lang ng barko, walang dalang mga papeles, nahiwalay pa sa kanilang mga anak o asawa. At sabi sa amin, no less than six months pa sila nakukulong bago sila i-deport," Mamauag said.
Quisumbing is set to confer with CHR officials in Zamboanga City on Friday and would be visiting the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Center for Displaced Persons at Barangay Mampang.
Members of Migrante International, a group advocating for the rights of overseas Filipino migrants, would be arriving with Quisumbing.
Since none of the deportees interviewed earlier by the CHR is willing to file formal complaints against the Malaysian authorities, the CHR is set to document their experiences and recommend measures to the national government to assure that no Filipino would again suffer in the hands of the foreign authorities.
Fact-finding mission
Migrante International, meanwhile, will lead its 3rd National Fact-Finding Mission (NFFM) on October 2-6.
The group said that Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan and lawyer Claire Padilla of the National Union of People’s Lawyers and Gender Rights are set to join the team.
Migrante International chairperson Connie Bragas-Regalado told abs-cbnNEWS.com that the team will also probe the “undocumented casualties of the Mindanao conflict” and the “victims of the Arroyo government’s labor-export program” as well as its failure to provide jobs and livelihood in the region.
The DSWD in Zamboanga City reported that 35,000 Filipinos were deported from Sabah during the first eight months of they year. The agency is expecting more than 200,000 by the end of the year.
“The massive deportation of migrants from Sabah continues, hidden from the public eye. What the Arroyo government refuses to acknowledge, Migrante International will once again expose. We hope to bring aid and attention to our OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] who only sought to escape the poverty and war in Mindanao,” said Regalado who is also the secretary-general of the International Migrants Alliance.
The 1st and 2nd NFFM on Sabah deportees held by Migrante International in 2002 and 2005 revealed that OFWs suffered inhumane treatment and sexual harassment while inside jam-packed prison; deportees who arrived in the Philippines remained homeless and lacked livelihood support from the government; women became victims of sex trafficking; and, there was a high number of “stateless children” or children of migrants born without documents.
Despite these problems, the group found out that almost 40% of migrants wanted to return to Sabah for work.
“We expect that the situation has worsened because the heightened military offensives in Mindanao drive more and more Filipinos away from their homeland and push them into risky situations in neighboring foreign shores,” said Regalado. With a report from abs-cbnNEWS.com
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