This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 22, 2021 - March 28, 2021

What bothers me is that after all these years there is no change in the situation,” says Florida Sandanasamy, a social worker who rescues workers in distress.

We were talking after the funeral mass for Aegile Fernandez, the workers’ rights activist who co-founded the women’s empowerment group Tenaganita with her sister Irene.

Aegile passed away aged 72 on March 9 after a lifetime spent in human rights advocacy for the welfare of women, migrants and refugees. Irene, who had won the Right Livelihood Award — also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize — for her work in this area, died in 2014.

Florida is a programme officer at Tenaganita and was inspired by Aegile’s dedication to the upliftment of exploited workers to use her legal training to support their struggle for justice.

The number of human rights violations involving migrants correlates with their huge presence in Malaysia. Immigration Department data shows that 1.98 million regular migrant workers were employed in Malaysia as at September 2019, according to a briefing note by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

However, a World Bank report estimates that some 2.96 million to 3.26 million migrant workers, including 1.23 million to 1.46 million migrant workers in irregular situations, were residing in Malaysia in 2017, says the note by the Triangle in Asean programme. The programme, which focuses on the role of migration in development, links the ILO, Australian and Canadian governments with six Asean member nations, including Malaysia.

Given their vulnerable position, the rights of migrant workers are a core area for advocacy by Suhakam, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia. In a statement to mark International Migrants Day in December last year, it said:

“Over the years, Suhakam has received numerous complaints on the alleged human rights violations faced by migrant workers. Most of the complaints were related to, among others, forced labour, human trafficking, unpaid wages, withholding of identification documents, delays in the renewal of work permits, unlawful dismissal, alleged mistreatment and death at workplace.”

Many of these workers turn up at Tenaganita’s door, seeking relief in their darkest hour. Rather than judgement, they find help and compassion.

The long-standing problems involving migrant workers have given impetus to many attempts to reform labour recruitment practices. However, they have all fallen by the wayside.

A comprehensive effort to correct the situation was taken in August 2018 with the setting up of the Special Independent Committee on Foreign Worker Management headed by former Court of Appeal judge Datuk Seri Hishamudin Yunus.

An extensive report containing 40 recommendations was presented to cabinet by the then human resources minister M Kula Segaran. In a statement last year, he said that the most significant proposal was for the abolishment of the outsourcing licence for foreign labour supply, which was thought to be the main obstacle for foreign worker management reform.

Another key recommendation was for the Ministry of Human Resources to be the single authority for the management of all foreign workers. To date, the Ministry of Home Affairs remains in control of the matter.

As it stands, the report has not gone beyond the cabinet and calls continue for it to be made public.

The US State Department’s 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report on Malaysia provides a stark picture of the plight of migrants who come to the country in search of work.

For the third consecutive year, Malaysia remains on the Tier 2 Watch List based on the ranking criteria stated in the US’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

The US report states that Malaysia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. Under the US Act, Malaysia would have been downgraded to Tier 3, the lowest category, but was granted a waiver because it had put sufficient resources into developing a written plan, which if implemented would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards.

The Tier 3 list is for countries whose governments neither fully comply with the minimum standards nor are making significant efforts to do so.

The Triangle in Asean briefing note of July-December 2020 puts the situation in a nutshell:

“During the last several years, an increasing number of media and NGO reports have documented serious labour rights abuses against migrant workers in Malaysia, including potential cases of forced labour and human trafficking. Women domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse due to the physical isolation of their workplaces, restrictions on movement and inadequate mechanisms established to ensure accountability of employers.”

The Covid-19 pandemic exposed some of the distressing conditions that migrant workers endure.

In early December last year, the briefing note states, it was reported that more than 90% of employers had yet to comply with the provisions set out in the Workers’ Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act 1990 or Act 446.

Faced with such deplorable circumstances, people like Aegile have chosen to stand up and be counted. Florida gives an example of Aegile’s humane spirit.

“Sometimes while attending to the abused workers, she would find out that they had not eaten. Aegile would take out her own money and ask us to buy them food,” Florida recalls.

In an eulogy to Aegile that was read at the funeral mass, her godson Camverra Jose Maliamauv remembers her stories about the many jobs she worked in during her younger days.

“I did more than 20 jobs you know, Cam,” she had told him. They included working as a petrol station attendant, bartender, waitress, factory worker, door-to-door salesperson and countless other jobs.

“You name it, I’ve done it. I deeply felt that if I was not there with the workers, I would not understand their issues and problems, or how to organise them,” she had told her nephew.

Aegile’s ethos can be seen in these lines from a poem that she had written:

Rash Behari Bhattacharjee is an associate editor at The Edge

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