Letter: Migrants always at the losing end, what more during MCO

LETTER | I recently saw a video of migrants in Bareilly, India being openly sprayed with disinfectant. It was reminiscent of Room 101 in George Orwell's book 1984, where prisoners in the "Ministry of Love" are subjected to their worst nightmare.

In an acutely hygiene conscious time like this, it’s funny how migrants are treated with the least humanity. The public spraying of these migrants is a reflection of what society thinks of migrants, an almost insect-like treatment. Spraying insecticide to ward off the pests. 

Strong as these words may seem, the conclusion is an apparent one, from the manner in which the migrants were “cleansed”. Ethnic cleansing by Nazi Germany during the holocaust and by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia comes to mind. One thing is clear: history has not served as a lesson. This is what is happening in India. 

As for Malaysia, during this movement control order (MCO), one can only guess what circumstances migrants are in. The government has announced a RM250 billion stimulus package. Naturally and without a doubt, migrants are unaccounted for. They are non-citizens and do not come into this particular picture. 

Now, there is no blame to be placed on the government: businesses, the B40, and even the M40 group are themselves at a losing end during the MCO, so the invisible migrants become all the more invisible. This is an unfortunate reality, but the fact remains. A lot of migrants will now not have a source of income. 

Based on members of Tenaganita, many migrants earn daily wages doing odd jobs (general work at markets and restaurants as cleaners) and therefore they would be very much affected during the MCO period (and perhaps even after that). In fact, domestic workers would not have the opportunity to earn income overtime. 

We can only wonder (and that too if we care to) what kind of lives they are living at present. As it is, most migrants live in kongsis, which is something that most Malaysians would be unfamiliar with. 

It is an acknowledged truth that migrants have always been at the mercy of their employers as a lot of them are undocumented. This is not an ideal situation in normal circumstances. During this time of MCO, it is simply devastating. 

In December 2019, the Malaysian Bar released a press statement which stated that the Independent Committee on the Management of Foreign Workers had submitted its report to the government. With the situation in Malaysia being markedly distinct from then, where would migrants stand now (undocumented and documented) is the question.

This is not the only issue, there is also a concern over migrants who were supposed to return to their home country or those who were supposed to enter into Malaysia during the period of the MCO. This, however, has been addressed somewhat. Here, only migrants who are working in essential services are allowed into Malaysia. This is on the condition that these migrants possess a letter from their employer and present it to the Immigration authorities. 

Essential services are laid out in Schedule 1 of the Industrial Relations Act 1967 as well as the Schedule to the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Measures within the local Infected Areas) Regulations 2020. Based on the IRA 1967 and the PCID Regulations 2020 alone, it is clear that construction is not considered essential services. These are some of the key industries that would likely hire migrant workers as they come under the 3D (dirty, dangerous and difficult) job denomination.

With all this coming to the fore, I cannot help but be transported back to the car rides with my mother. It’s like that tape that used to play in her old car. I remember always thinking that I was listening to different tunes but had a nagging feeling that there was something so similar about all the songs. After a few weeks of this, my mother finally told me that she only recorded Candle in the Wind by Elton John. It was the same song playing over and over again. 

The same feeling is associated to the plight of migrants, I think. It seems like we’re listening to different plights, but at the root of it, all migrants will have the worst fate in the worst of times. At the end of the day, they would be the overlooked sector of society.

We are living in very strange days, where there no sources to refer to, no reference as to how to survive. We have history to look at: the Spanish flu in 1918 or maybe even World War II. This is though quite far removed from today’s society. It was a fairly different time, with very different realities. On that note, one cannot be blamed for having an "each man for himself" frame of thought. 

However, perspective taking is perhaps necessary. We are quick to blame celebrities for being tone-deaf when it comes to shelling out advice on "staying home". “Ah, Ellen DeGeneres is one to talk, look at her home”. This is not entirely wrong, but is there not a degree of hypocrisy involved here? 

The upper middle class, or those of us from the middle class are rather blind to the B40 group and the cramped flats in which they live. We are all the more blind to migrants and the kongsis where they live. When life was normal (to which we may never return to), while driving, a lot of us would have passed through construction sites during the heat of day, going for our work lunches, in our air-conditioned cars and just watch migrant workers slaving away. 

Did any of us wonder, even for a second what the actuality of their lives looked like? Are we considering then, what it looks like now? I highly doubt it, most Malaysians are probably more worried about whether they can get bread. Is it not only fair, as fellow members of the human race, that we also have our eyes peeled for migrants?

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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