Weak leadership and lenient policies cause of long stays in M'sia for undocumented migrants

SHAH ALAM - The weak leadership in the Peninsular Malaysia labour department is the reason behind undocumented migrants setting up camps in Malaysia for long periods of time.

Migrant Care Malaysia Representative Alex Ong said this leads to migrants extending their stay in Malaysia.

"More than 85 percent of those in the informal economy industry hire migrants yet it is unregulated. For example, house to house cleaners is not allowed, but why do Malaysian authorities still allow for approval?

"Migrants extend their stay in Malaysia as we have lenient policies that enable them to stay and build their social networks and reproduce their communities in Malaysia.

"Very few academicians engage in the studies of the sociological impacts of the social reproduction of undocumented migrant communities, while lawmakers fraternities and bureucrats are only interested in the neoliberal economic of pull and push factors," he said.

Alex also said that policy makers are complacent and often ignore the dynamic of changes in the migration.

"Policy makers are too complacent and very shallow, they just develop cut and paste policies and often ignore the dynamic of changes in the migration.

"JTKSM has very weak leadership, and inter agency bureucratic politics is rampant," he said.

Meanwhile migrant rights activist Josh Hong has urged the government to give a minimum of one year for undocumented immigrants to save money and return to their homeland.

"The government can give a grace period of one year time for these migrants to earn enough money and make them (undocumented migrants) go back to their homeland.

"The problem with the re-calibaration system is the amount which is RM1,500. Some might be able to afford it while some might not be able to afford it while and don't have access to the system," he said.