Migrant Watch
Support Drive for Sabah Refugees Launched

The non-government Citizens Disaster Response Center (CDRC) this week revealed that the deportation of undocumented Filipinos in Malaysia has long been going on, albeit without the uproar attending the arrivals last year. It placed the number of undocumented Filipinos in Malaysia facing deportation from a low 60,000 to a high 500,000.

BY BULATLAT.COM

The Citizens Disaster Response Center (CDRC) is holding a resource-generation campaign for Filipino refugees deported from the nearby Sabah, Malaysia.

The campaign was launched after CDRC fielded an assessment team to Western Mindanao to look into the situation and assess the needs of the deportees, to determine the level of preparedness of the humanitarian agencies responding to the event. 

CDRC is appealing to individuals and organizations to give material and financial contributions, or donate their time for legal, health and social services. It is also encouraging the holding of discussions on disaster preparedness and the plight of Filipino deportees.

According to its flyer, a P300 donation will give a family food for one week: eight kilos of rice, one pint of cooking oil, half kilo of sugar, half kilo of dried fish, three cans of sardines, half kilo of mongo and one-fourth kilo of salt.

Donations may be sent to CDRC Bldg., 72-A Times Street, West Triangle, Quezon City, Philippines. It’s email address is cdrc@i-manila.com.ph.

Deportation

Julie Passi of CDRC’s operations department said that the deportation of undocumented Filipinos in Malaysia has long been going on, albeit without the uproar attending the arrivals last year. It placed the number of undocumented Filipinos in Malaysia facing deportation from a low 60,000 to a high 500,000.

Passi also observed that should these undocumented Filipinos be rounded up and deported en masse to the Philippines within a very narrow time frame, the potential for a humanitarian emergency to arise becomes highly probable if the preparations for receiving them prove inadequate.

CDRC also confirmed the cases of deaths, rape, torture and other physical abuse of deportees while in detention and in transit, denial of food and medical care, and burning of houses.

Lack of government support

CDRC reported that government assistance to deportees is only up to providing free transportation to deportees as they are sent back to their places of origin. Housing and livelihood assistance that will enable deportees to start the process of their successful reintegration into normal community life is not being addressed. This puts the survival of the deportees in jeopardy, especially those who were forcibly deported and unable to bring any cash, clothing, bedding materials, trade tools and equipment.

The personal support network of most of the deportees as they are brought to their places of origin is negligible. Many of them left Mindanao many years back, some as far back as the 1970’s when the Moro rebellion against the Marcos dictatorship broke out. When the deportees arrive in their places of origin, they would have no homes of their own, no land to farm, no tools and assets to start some kind of livelihood activities, and no food on the table. They will then have to depend on the generosity of their relatives. Given the situation of war and poverty in Mindanao, however, this would most probably be in the form of limited material support to the deportees. Many are not even sure if their immediate relatives would still be there to welcome them, given the displacement of entire communities due to the unrest in Mindanao.

The best that the government’s reintegration program could offer is livelihood skills training. It is however still looking for funds to finance the program.

This lack of housing and livelihood support has already resulted in a host of social problems. The Zamboanga City government, for example, already noted a rise in criminality, where 50 percent of the incidents in the immediate period involving deportees. Some female deportees have also been traced already by city health officials to the city’s nightspots. Talks are also rife that the deportees will be easy recruits of the Abu Sayyaf bandit group and of criminal syndicates.

Migrante International, Bayan Muna and Bayan, the groups that participated in a fact-finding mission on the deportees’ plight, reported tracing significant concentrations of deportees in communities in Sulu and Basilan.

The problem of reuniting separated family members must also be addressed, noted CDRC. There are several cases of undocumented Filipinos getting arrested, detained and deported to the Philippines, while their families are still in Malaysia (See article on Mohammed Palani). These separated family members are looking for ways to communicate with their families without giving away to the authorities their locations in Malaysia. Most of them also have no work contracts that will legalize their reentry into Malaysia. A passport is not sufficient. They also have to show that they are gainfully employed in Malaysia.

Some of these separated family members are unaccompanied children now in the custody of DSWD. Their continuing separation is a violation of Philippine laws and international conventions.

The rape victims and victims of torture and other forms of physical abuse also need a wide range of assistance including legal and psychiatric care.

Legal assistance

CDRC also noted that legal and other forms of assistance should be extended to those who were rape, tortured, physically and emotionally harmed, divested of property, or whose rights as a human being have been violated to seek redress. This course of action may also act as a deterrent for the commission of similar acts of future deportees.

It believes that the Philippine and Malaysian governments must be constantly put to pressure by the power of public opinion so that the human rights of undocumented Filipinos, especially those arrested, detained and deported, shall be protected.

It scored unnecessary deportation of Filipinos who have valid or justifiable reasons for extending their stay in Malaysia on legal, humanitarian and other grounds.  It urged both governments to sit down and determine the number of undocumented Filipinos that will still be deported, and agree on the time frame. The time frame must take into consideration the need for the Philippine government to start in earnest preparations for receiving the deportees. The preparations should include setting in place a comprehensive resettlement program for the deportees. Philippine government inaction as it exhibited during the four-month amnesty period set by their Malaysian counterpart must not be repeated. Bulatlat.com

Related articles:

Filipino Refugees from Sabah: Twice Displaced and Many Times Wronged

Mohammed Palani: Jobless and Separated from Family

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