The shameful truth about Burmese refugees in Malaysia (repost)

MEDIA STATEMENT FROM HEALTH EQUITY INITIATIVES:

The Realities of Refugees and Asylum Seekers from Burma in Malaysia

Malaysia is currently host to one of the largest refugee and asylum seeker populations in Asia. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there are more than 90,000 registered refugees in the country. Both UNHCR and the refugee communities estimate that the actual number of refugees is much higher, given that thousands have yet to be registered. 92% are Burmese who escaped persecution in Burma, where political turmoil and ruthless military domination have persisted for decades. However, Malaysia has continued to refuse to recognise them as refugees.

Malaysia has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention nor the 1967 Protocol. Under the Malaysian Immigration Act 1959/63 (Act 155), refugees and asylum seekers are designated as “illegal migrants” and may be subject to arrest, detention, punishment (including whipping), and deportation. Historically, the focus has been on reducing the number of irregular persons through large-scale (and often violent) ‘crackdowns,' where the aim is to arrest, detain and deport undocumented migrants and refugees. Arrested refugees are often unable to understand the charges read to them and secure appropriate legal assistance.

Life for refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia is extremely difficult. Unable to work legally in the country, and with limited access to basic services (health care, education or legal services), they are vulnerable to poverty, exploitation and health problems. Refugees and asylum seekers scrape by on earnings from work in low paying, unskilled and often part-time/casual jobs in the plantation, construction, manufacturing, or service sectors. Even amongst those who are employed, poverty and indebtedness are endemic. Many earn far less than the government-determined poverty-line income (PLI) of RM800 per household per month.

Forced labor and human trafficking are serious concerns for this community. Moreover, without the protection that legal status provides, refugees and asylum seekers are afraid to come forward to authorities because they fear arrest and detention. At one time, Malaysian immigration officials were even implicated in such activities: it was found that they had trafficked refugees from Burma up to the Malaysia-Thai border where they were handed over to human smugglers/traffickers who held them for ransom. Those who could not pay were sold to Thai fishermen, brothels or private owners.

Refugees’ and asylum seekers’ dire living circumstances, coupled with aggressive, punitive approaches by the state as well as everyday experiences of discrimination by non-state actors, creates an extremely poor environment for refugees in Malaysia. Furthermore, these adverse life events, combined with the persecution they faced in Burma, increase their vulnerability to a number of health problems, including infectious diseases, psychological problems and under-management of chronic conditions.

Refugee Health

Mental health problems among refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia are a serious concern. Health Equity Initiatives’ (HEI) analysis of the scores of 578 refugees and asylum seekers who were screened in April and May 2011 using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales 21 (DASS21) indicated that 19.9% experienced either moderate, severe or extremely severe Stress. Almost half (48%) experienced either moderate, severe or extremely severe Anxiety, and 38% experienced either moderate, severe or extremely severe Depression. An earlier analysis of HEI’s mental health clients showed that 22% presented with symptoms that required psychiatric care. A separate study conducted by HEI revealed that, among those with a high level of need for psychosocial services, 77.1% reported they could not afford the services.

In principle, government hospitals in Malaysia are open and available to refugees and asylum seekers, but evidence collected by HEI shows that refugees and asylum seekers experience substantial barriers accessing health care in Malaysia.

The cost of health care is unaffordable for many. This is particularly the case if treatment costs are high and the individual is an asylum seeker (asylum seekers cannot take advantage of the 50% discount off the foreigner rate that registered UNHCR refugees receive). Concerns around arrest and detention are another problem, as refugees and asylum seekers are afraid to travel to seek medical services. Many refugees live outside the city, some in jungle sites, so transportation and security concerns are significant.

Language differences and a lack of information about health services also impact refugees’ ability to access services. Refugees have also cited the poor quality of treatment and discrimination they experience at both public and private health facilities as reasons for not seeking medical treatment when needed. Evidence also showed that refugees delayed seeking medical treatment until the situation became serious, thereby risking their health and increasing their need for hospitalization.

Forced Labor

Forced labor is a situation currently affecting 12.3 million people worldwide. It is defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO) as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.” Simply put, there are two elements to forced labor: 1) the work or service must be exacted under menace of a penalty; and 2) it is undertaken involuntarily.

By making the public aware of research on forced labor in Malaysia, HEI wishes to highlight its prevalence. Although almost 9.5 million people are trapped in forced labor in the Asia-Pacific region, the phenomenon of forced labor is not well understood in our societies. Frequently, forced labor operates in a manner closely connected with local context and is therefore less noticeable for most members of that society. In Malaysia, a combination of shortcomings in both immigration and labor laws has created dangerous circumstances, exposing this vulnerable population to forced labor.

HEI’s research on Burmese refugees and asylum seekers in the Klang Valley revealed that one third of the research sample population has experienced forced labor. Playing into their fear of authorities because of the lack of documentation, employers and agents have used the threat of reports to the police and/or immigration as a way to force them into underpaid and exploitative labor. The negative impact on their well-being is demonstrated by more than 60% of the sample population who display symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. This is more than twice the rate of the general population.

The graveness of the situation cannot be underemphasized. In Malaysia, practices of forced labor can last for years without being detected. Survivors rarely report their experience for a variety of reasons: they don’t know where to go; they are too afraid to speak out; they fear deportation or imprisonment; or they are simply resigned to accept forced labor as a norm rather than a violation of their fundamental human rights. One man HEI interviewed said simply, “I can’t sit around waiting for the good one. I don’t want to wait for the job.” Basic survival - the need for food and shelter for themselves and their families - has left them with little choice but to take up dismal jobs, often entering into situations of forced labor fully aware of the risks and dangers.

Through our campaign we are seeking to shed light on their experience, and to understand their plight as persons - not just as faceless workers. Our ignorance of forced labor situations has undoubtedly contributed to the continuation of these practices. This is why public awareness is essential. We hope that the witness accounts will show that allowing refugees and asylum seekers to work legally will protect them, improve their well-being, and demonstrate that the recognition of their status as refugees will make a whole world of difference.

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[First posted 1 November 2011]

A WHODUNIT WITH HEART, MIND AND SOUL (repost)

Coming up with a good opening line is every author’s challenge – especially so if one happens to be debuting as a crime novelist. For his maiden attempt at producing fast-paced pulp fiction with pith, Alois Leinweber settled on this one: 

“The woman sat down close to him, close enough for him to feel her warmth through his trousers.”

It worked for me as I found myself turning all 252 pages of Jasmine for the Dead with eagerness and ease. Set in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, the book starts off as a classic whodunit, with an honest cop as the main protagonist and much of the action revolving around the discovery of a naked white body by the steps of the national monument – dead, of course, skull bashed in with a hard object and a bullet wound in the neck.

Turns out the murder victim is an Englishman named James Hollander, freelance journalist and former British soldier posted in Malaya. Apparently he has been shot with an army issue pistol from the early post-war era.

Chief Inspector Chee Keong is the sort of detective who rarely gets in the news – simply because he takes his job seriously and enjoys it. Assisted by his trusty sidekick Haris Askandar, Inspector Chee Keong is modeled after famous fictional sleuths like Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot – a cop with razor-sharp intelligence and a bloodhound nose who somehow manages to remain likeable and human despite his less-than-pleasant job.

The English translation of his book was launched at Bukit Kiara Equestrian and Country Club on 11 May 2014

Leinweber takes pains to develop the Chief Inspector as his central figure, so that within a couple of chapters he serves as the reader’s alter ego even as he pulls together the various plot strands. Apart from his detective work, Chee Keong has a personal life. He jogs, he has a wide circle of friends, he’s well read, likes his food, enjoys travel, and he has an alluring Malay girlfriend named Sharifah. The author uses the romance between Inspector Chee Keong and Sharifah to shed some light on problems confronting interracial couples, and I don’t doubt that some of it is autobiographical.

Investigating the murder of James Hollander leads the dedicated sleuth down many intriguing paths across a broad span of time and space. We learn that the murdered Englishman is linked with the 1948 Batang Kali massacre – another ugly blot in the history of British colonialism wherein 24 unarmed Chinese villagers were brutally executed as a warning to others against collaborating with Communist insurgents. Relatives of those killed in Batang Kali have waited 66 years for the British government to apologize and compensate them – but in vain. Was James Hollander a member of the Scots Guards platoon responsible for this bloodbath? Why had he been visiting Batang Kali and seeking out surviving relatives of those shot in cold blood?

The dead journalist, we learn, was previously married to a German named Petra Schmidt, senior executive in a Frankfurt-based pharmaceutical firm with a few skeletons in its closet involving contaminated medicines (which they were foisting off in Southeast Asia through their Bangkok office). Although long estranged from one another Petra and James had yet to formalize their divorce.

True to his calling as an investigative journalist, Hollander had been digging into this scandal and had uncovered enough documentary evidence to do an exposé that would have devastating consequences on the pharmaceutical firm. Instead of admitting to unethical practices, the company had invested in a high-powered public relations agency based in Kuala Lumpur to do some damage control.

Funnyman Harith Iskander jokes with Alois Leinweber

Inspector Chee Keong also learns that the dead man had had a keen interest in Malaysia’s notorious human trafficking syndicates. Hollander had apparently taken it upon himself to establish a special fund to help stranded foreign workers, lured over to Malaysia by unscrupulous recruiting agents, who then confiscated their passports and forced them into slave labor. Realizing that negative publicity alone wouldn’t solve the problem because of entrenched corruption within the Malaysian bureaucracy, James Hollander had begun extorting “donations” from agencies recruiting foreign labor, which he then channeled into his fund.

To further complicate the plot, James Hollander shared an apartment with his gay lover, a German expatriate named Hubert Gehrcke, who seemed troubled about his partner’s promiscuous tendencies.

With so many different leads to work with, Inspector Chee Keong is hard pressed to find out which one to follow. On top of all this, he has to deal with a less than supportive Chief of Police, his immediate boss, the crusty Datuk Nazim Ahmad (whose personal secretary, Azleena, happens to have a soft spot for Inspector Chee Keong, thereby easing the tension a little).

Another Datuk enters the thickening plot, Azmi Hamid, director-general of the Immigration Department. Suspicion surrounds this suave character who openly admits to the detectives that he was once a partner in a foreign worker recruitment agency. Datuk Azmi solemnly warns Chee Keong and Haris that there are moles in the Police Force they must flush out.

With Dr Hans Volker Wolf (former director of Goethe-Institut, Kuala Lumpur)

What Leinweber has achieved with Jasmine for the Dead is nothing less than a craftsmanlike tour de force. It’s not easy to keep so many balls in the air with a plot so rich in false trails and red herrings. For a first novel, he has succeeded admirably in serving up as a main dish a mature and intelligent crime thriller in the classic whodunit format – with lots of titillating side dishes thrown in.

In the process Leinweber manages to address a plethora of political issues that constitute the shadow side of Malaysia’s sunny disposition – the smiling face she presents to the casual tourist. Particularly poignant are his revelations on exactly how human trafficking works in Malaysia. The nightmare zone he leads his reader through is stark and vivid. Indeed, it was what triggered my decision to review Jasmine for the Dead – just to get the message out to more people who need to know what’s going on.

The author himself is certainly no casual tourist, having lived several decades in Malaysia with his German-educated Malaysian wife. I was introduced to him many years ago as someone with wide ranging interests and skills. Apart from being (yes, you guessed it) a freelance journalist, Alois Leinweber also teaches German, literature, and music in an international school. He has also written travel books and produced a 30-minute documentary (Rebel Dancer, 2003) on legendary classical Indian dancer and choreographer Ramli Ibrahim. Apart from that, he’s a passionate accordionist and aficionado of the arts.

I assume he can also cook, as he pays loving attention to what his characters consume at every meal, making his whodunit work overtime as a culinary guide to Malaysia. It was a distinct pleasure to see my own country through his eyes and I heartily applaud Alois Leinweber for doing a thoroughly magnificent job of capturing the subtle flavors and nuances that make Malaysia so unique.

A bit of chamber music for the book launch

If I wished to nitpick, I might pounce on the fact that I found the ending a bit of an emotional letdown. As Malaysians we have become almost paralyzed by our inability to vote out the corrupt regime that has bled the national coffers for almost 44 years – or since the introduction in 1970 of a barely concealed apartheid system that has effectively promoted mediocrity to the very top, forcing a massive brain drain of talent and oppressing those who opt to stay).

It has reached the point where we feel deeply disappointed whenever the big fish get away with murder – as they invariably do, and continue to do so, even in works of fiction.

And this may sound petty but as a lifelong smoker, I couldn’t help feeling slightly affronted by his constant harping on people’s tobacco habits. But apart from that, Leinweber’s preliminary venture into pithy pulp fiction gave me so much pleasure, I am already looking forward to seeing Inspector Chee Keong and his assistant Haris Askandar in their next detective adventure.

Who knows, somebody might even have the good sense to buy the movie rights to this stimulating sizzler.

Jasmine for the Dead was originally written in German and published as Jasmin für einen Toten. The English translation was published under the Aletheia imprint in May 2014 and is distributed by Gerakbudaya.

[First posted 7 July 2014]

Imagine being a 21st century slave: 3 case studies of Burmese workers in Malaysia

John is a 23-year old ethnic Karen from Burma. He came to Malaysia about two years ago, and has since been working in restaurants around Klang Valley. John took up his first restaurant job about three months after his arrival. His main job was to wash the dishes, but he also had to do other cleaning chores at the restaurant, including cleaning the toilets. “I washed and cleaned everything they ordered me to.” He kept the job for about 8 months until he went to try to register for a UNHCR refugee card. “I was scolded afterwards. The boss didn’t want me to register with the UN—he just wouldn’t allow it. Some employers are afraid of the UN card. They don’t like it if we are registered with the UN refugee agency and have refugee cards.”

At present, John works in a food court in Sunway. On average, he works about 12 to 13 hours every day. The employers do provide him with three meals daily, but they take fresh ingredients from the fridge and cook for themselves—we are given stale food.” John mentioned that he does get one day off each week, but to his dismay it is not on Sunday so he is not able to not attend church.

John remarked that there are also documented workers from Vietnam where he works. John mentioned that these workers do not get scolded as much as the workers from Burma. John said it is the verbal abuse that hurts him most. “The employers often pick on us, saying bad things about us, saying that we are lazy people, things like that.” John said his working experience thus far has made him feel downhearted. “I feel ashamed for being here, I feel like my presence in Malaysia is a bother, it’s like we have interrupted the lives of people here. It’s not that I want to disturb the Malaysians. If I could, of course I would choose to work in my own country.”

18th century African slaves in Missouri

Confinement is also found in the service sector, and can be done by agents. San (32), an ethnic Burmese asylum seeker, recalled how he was once confined by agents who promised him a job at the hotel. “He kept me at a house with other people from Burma and Indonesia, including 3 women. We were locked in when they went out. The agent said he would give me a job if available. There were three guards in the agent’s house.” Workers are usually shuttled back and forth from the restaurant to their living quarters. John is housed in a place he refers to as a “hostel,” where he is not allowed visitors. He has to share a small room with five other people.

Similarly, Mei (22)—an ethnic Shan—was also confined at the agent’s place. Every day, she would be brought by the agent to a restaurant where she was put to work as a dishwasher. She was never allowed to go out, and only knew the restaurant and the agent’s place. “I only knew work, and off-work. Work, and off-work. I just followed the agents, wherever they took me to, I followed. I didn’t think of disobeying. If I didn’t follow… I don’t know what would happen.”

John recounted that his prayers were important in helping him to cope, but says, “I am usually in tears after I say my prayers.” He also gets by with support from some friends - fellow Karen refugees in Malaysia. Mei relies mostly upon herself, but feels alone and without anyone to turn to. Trying to avoid feeling upset or distressed, she says that she tries to “suppress her heart,” because crying only makes her feel worse. She also reminds herself that it could be worse, “because I still have my legs and my hands. […] There are people who are richer, they face more challenges. And then there are also people who are worse off, those who have it worse than me. I tell myself don’t think of bad things… think of happy things.”

Experiencing forced labour is a traumatic and stressful experience. Those who have to work in these conditions are able to cope, and keep their humanity, but the toll on their mental health is evident.

[Source: Health Equity Initiatives]

PLEASE SIGN PETITION TO MALAYSIAN GOVERNMENT ON THE INHUMANE TREATMENT OF REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS

New doco on human trafficking ~ NOT MY LIFE

Click here for preview and background info.

How is it possible that such cruelty and insensitivity can exist in the human world? It seems the dark underbelly of our reality is like a writhing viper pit of vampires, ghouls, parasites and predators disguised as human beings. They often work in cahoots with corrupt regimes and have agents planted in immigration departments.

Malaysia is among the most dangerous countries in the world to be a refugee.  

Unknown thousands of unfortunates have been captured and sold to slave traders across the border or kept under conditions that would appall and outrage animal lovers if such treatment was doled out to zoo animals. The BN regime does almost nothing about the refugee issue apart from deny, deny, deny - and then engage expensive public relations consultants to restore its dented image.

On Monday, 31 October 2011, a week-long campaign kicks off to alert Malaysians to what is happening right under their noses. It isn't hard to believe - we've all seen what happened to young men like Ananthan Kugan and Teoh Beng Hock who both died in custody under unexplained circumstances. Their killers have been protected by the ruling regime. Only under heavy pressure from the public do they make a show of initiating inquests and inquiries that drag on for months, even years, and lead absolutely nowhere.

It's time to tear the mask of fake respectability off their hypocritical faces!



Among the worst off would be the Burmese refugees in Malaysia...
Watch this 3-minute video and sign the petition, please!

How can we allow THIS to happen???

Human trafficking can only happen where corruption is rife. Malaysia is an authoritarian country managed by spin-doctors and slick slogans. Everything is just for show. In reality we are still a benighted feudal country infested with pirates masquerading as rulers.

Nobility, integrity and honorable conduct cannot be faked. All the billion-dollar infrastructure in the world cannot conceal the moral decadence of the hypocritical, self-serving ruling elite.

This documentary reveals the shadow side of a rogue regime fueled by corruption. Do we want our children to grow up in such an environment? It's our moral duty to ensure that corrupt government is banished once and for all from Malaysia.

Najib Razak has inherited Umno's legacy of monolithic corruption left behind by Mahathir Mohamad. His is the most morally tainted regime in Malaysian history. The home minister and prime minister must be held personally accountable for this disgraceful state of affairs.

May all decent souls resolve here and now to throw out this decadent bunch of white-collar criminals through non-violent means.