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Uncertainty about Malaysian amnesty
Irrawaddy - May 24, 2010
Kyaw Thein Kha – Illegal Burmese migrant workers say they are uncertain whether to accept a pending amnesty announced at a news conference on May 20 by Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, according to a report in The Star online.
Announcing the planned amnesty, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said, once the Home Ministry put the biometric identification system in place, foreigners who entered the country illegally or overstayed after their work permits expired would be allowed to return home without further penalties.
"It's doesn't benefit us to return home as we're not sure of a job when we go back," said Lin Lin, 25, a Burmese man who has been in Malaysia since 2005.
"We have to think how much our government will help us when we return," he said, adding that he has overstayed illegally one year.
Some undocumented Burmese migrant workers say they are not interested in the offer of legal return because of the high cost of transportation.
Kyaw Moe, who has stayed in Kuala Lumpur more than 15 years said, "A legal return requires a one-way ticket to Burma that costs between 1500 and 1800 Malaysian ringgit [US $450-540]. If we pay to return by being smuggled across the borders, we only have to pay 900 ringgit [$270]."
However, illegal immigrants in detention centers will only be able to return by flying. If they don't have money to pay for the tickets, they will remain in the detention centers.
"I think only a few Burmese migrants will be interested in the amnesty because most Burmese migrants workers in Malaysia left Burma due to economic hardship there," said Kyaw Kyaw, the chairman of the National League for Democracy (Liberated Area) Malaysia.
After the amnesty offer expires, the Malaysian government will act against all those who shelter foreign workers without permits, said Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
According to Malay government statistics, 800,000 of around 1.8 million undocumented foreign workers are from Burma. Seventy percent of Burmese workers in the country are thought to be illegal.
The Malaysian government offered amnesty to undocumented migrant workers in the country two times previously: in 2002 and in 2004.
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