"When I see the migrant workers' broken bodies and eyes without hope, I want to embrace and wipe away their fears. It makes me angry and helps me to keep fighting the oppressive system ." - Irene Fernandez

We speak from evidence! We speak from the experiences lived by the people - the community we work with, the women, children, and migrants - and by refugees.

Today, on International Migrants Day, Tenaganita would like to share with you a video that we produced called ‘Ochena - The Unknown’.

As we view the video, many glaring thoughts run through our minds and strong emotions are formed in our hearts.

We want to exclaim “O my God, poor fellow” or “so sad” or perhaps maybe even a “this is not right” but the question that follows through is, ‘Do we really care?’

This is just one out of the thousands of cases of migrant workers that Tenaganita has managed and handled since its formation in 1991. This is the reality for most migrants in Malaysia.

Exploited underclass

Malaysia has created an underclass of workers called migrant workers who face extreme forms of exploitation and violations that reflect modern-day slavery.

They are forced to work through mental and physical threats and for long hours often without a paid day off, their movements are confined, and their passport withheld.

Many are dehumanised and treated as commodity.

As a member of the United Nations, Malaysia has proclaimed to hold to the highest standards, to protect and promote respect for inherent dignity, rights, and fundamental freedoms, and to actively secure effective recognition of these rights for all persons.

“Inherent, universal, inalienable rights” applies without discrimination to all 2.6 million migrant workers in Malaysia. This is a basic premise that we call on the Malaysian government to accept. Should they not, we ask them, as members of the international community, to explain why.

Tenaganita has consistently and loudly voiced deep concerns over the inherent and critical problems in the system of recruitment, placement, and employment of migrant workers in Malaysia.

We have also raised concerns over many aspects of Malaysia’s immigration policies that are in harsh violation of fundamental rights that restrict access to justice.

No significant changes

The tragedy is that we have raised these issues, backed by civil society and unions, nationally as well as internationally, for over two decades without seeing significant changes made to the system for the protection of the rights of migrant workers and refugees.

In 2014, Tenaganita managed and handled 624 new cases consisting of 2,407 migrant workers, refugees, women, and children, who were predominantly victims of labour trafficking.

Each case brought by a migrant worker revealed multiple forms of violations by employers, outsourcing agents, recruitment agents, or different government agencies.

As such, each of the violation was handled separately as it was an offence under different laws, different agencies and required different forms of investigations.

The violations arise from forms of control like withholding of passports and threats of arrest, detention and deportation if complaints are made; violence in various forms such as physical and mental abuse, long hours of work without payment for overtime, no paid day off, debt bondage, high wage deductions, as well as no access to healthcare and treatment; and the inability to seek justice or obtain compensation.

These forms of violations are also not random acts by abusive employers. The non-recognition of domestic workers in the Employment Act, the widespread abuses by outsourcing companies, the non-recognition of the rights of refugees to work, the denial of undocumented workers to access redress (regardless of how they became undocumented), the sluggish actions by the State to actively prevent human trafficking, abuse, violence - all these realities converge in a hot, bubbling cauldron of human rights abuses that migrants are thrown into.

The challenge to this government and the political leadership is to not be arrogant but redeem itself with humility to the feedback from us, from civil society, from unions, from governments of source countries, and from international institutions, to ensure that we as a nation reach global standards in the protection of rights.

We call on the Malaysian government, as a member state of the United Nations, to begin this positive response by signing (and implementing) the various conventions that ensure decent work and decent wages for all workers, both migrant and Malaysian.

We urge the Malaysian government collaborate with us to create an environment that respects, protects, promotes and defends the rights and dignity of all workers, including migrant workers.

Tenaganita is an NGO that works towards protecting the rights of women and migrants.