Mission to document plight of Sabah deportees

MANILA, Philippines — A 3rd National Fact-Finding Mission led by Migrante International will visit Zamboanga City from October 2 to 6 to look into the plight of thousands of Filipino deportees from Sabah, Malaysia.

In a press statement, Migrante dubbed the deportees as the “undocumented casualties of the Mindanao conflict" as well as the “victims of the Arroyo government’s labor-export program and its failure to provide jobs and livelihoods in the region."

“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 who only sought to escape the poverty and war in Mindanao," said Connie Bragas-Regalado, chairperson of Migrante International and secretary-general of the International Migrants Alliance.

A report by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Zamboanga City that 35,000 Sabah deportees arrived during the first eight months of the year. The agency will be expecting more than 200,000 by the end of 2008.

Joining the NFFM will be Bragas-Regalado, Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan, and lawyer Clare Padilla of the National Union of People’s Lawyers and Engender Rights.

The Malaysian government first conducted a crackdown on thousands of undocumented migrant Filipino workers in 2002, rounding them up in jails. Women were reported to have suffered sexual abuse, while babies died from starvation.

Migrante acknowledged that the Philippine and Malaysian governments put up the RP-Malaysia Working Group on Migrant Workers in 2005 amid condemnation from international bodies such as the United Nations and Amnesty International.

But Bragas-Regalado noted, “There has been no word about what the working group has done in the past three years to protect and uphold the welfare of Filipino migrants and refugees in Malaysia."

She said that 1st and 2nd fact-finding missions on Sabah deportees held by Migrante International in 2002 and 2005 found out 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, the group found out that almost 40 percent of migrants wanted to return to Sabah for work.

Migrante said it does not expect a positive change in the situation of deportees since the Arroyo government did not do anything save for giving momentary aid and posing for photo-ops.

“In fact, we expect that the situation has worsened because the heightened military offensives in Mindanao drive more and more Filipinos away from their homeland and into risks at neighboring foreign shores," added Bragas-Regalado.

She said the NFFM will come up with policy recommendations that will be presented to the International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees, an alternative gathering of migrants protesting the 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development hosted by the Philippine government on October 29-30 in Manila. - GMANews.TV

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