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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia on Friday (May 1) detained hundreds of refugees and migrant workers for living illegally in the country, human rights groups said, at a time of movement and travel restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.
Public anger over the presence of migrant foreigners has increased in recent days, with some in Malaysia accusing them of spreading the coronavirus and being a burden on government resources.
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Malaysia has around 2 million registered foreign workers, but authorities estimate that many more live in the Southeast Asian country without the proper documents. Malaysia does not formally recognize refugees, regarding them as illegal immigrants.
The arrests followed immigration raids on a neighborhood in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, where thousands of migrant and refugee workers live, according to human rights groups and photos shared on social media.
Human Rights Watch and the Asia-Pacific Refugee Rights Network said more than 700 migrants were detained, including young children. Rohingya refugees from Myanmar were among those detained, other rights groups said.
Malaysian police and the immigration department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Police officers wearing protective suits gather outside an apartment under an improved lockdown to pick up illegal immigrants, during the movement control order due to the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 1, 2020. (Photo: REUTERS / Lim Huey Teng)
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that a “small number of asylum-seekers” had been detained and had been informed by authorities that refugees and asylum-seekers were detained in order to verify their identity.
A Malaysian official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said foreign workers, mainly from South Asia, were detained because they did not have the necessary permits and that more raids would be carried out in the coming days.
Rachel Tan, program officer for the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, said the arrests were a “criminalization of a people working in difficult and dangerous working conditions.”
The neighborhood where the raids took place was near an area with three buildings that had undergone strict blockades last month after an increase in coronavirus cases there.
A police officer in a protective suit picks up an illegal immigrant from an apartment under an enhanced lockout, during the movement control order due to the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1 May 2020. (Photo: REUTERS / Lim Huey Teng)
About 9,000 people live in the buildings, most of whom are foreign nationals, and 235 of them have tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, the government said.
READ: COVID-19: Malaysia will open ‘almost all’ economic sectors from May 4 with health protocols, says Prime Minister Muhyiddin
Malaysia has reported a total of 6,071 coronavirus cases and 103 deaths, and its prime minister said on Friday that most companies will reopen starting Monday after a six-week cut that has caused a damaging economic slowdown.
The photos shared on social media showed dozens of migrant workers lined up in confined spaces as authorities watched from the sidewalk. Some officials were seen wearing full protective gear, while migrant workers wore only masks.
Illegal immigrants wait in line to be picked up by immigration agents outside an apartment under a closed lockout, during the movement control order due to the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 1, 2020. (Photo: REUTERS / Lim Huey Teng)
Other photos seen by Reuters showed dozens of migrants packed in trucks that typically carry illegal foreign nationals to immigration detention centers, known to be small and unhygienic.
“This is not entirely human,” said rights defender Tan. “Even innocent children and babies were dragged onto trucks like cattle.”
Migrant workers have been a particularly vulnerable community during the pandemic. In neighboring Singapore, thousands of infections have been linked to migrant workers’ dormitories.
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