Indonesian group blames Malaysia for ‘inhumane’ treatment of illegal migrant workers in Sabah: report

The Coalition of Sovereign Migrant Workers interviewed Indonesians, including children, who described beatings, filthy living conditions and death

At least 1,082 Indonesians have been deported from Sabah since June, the report found, and those interviewed felt they were ‘really treated like animals’

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A worker collects palm oil fruits at a plantation in Malaysia in June. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:00pm, 7 Oct 2020Updated: 11:24pm, 7 Oct 2020

An Indonesian group has alleged that migrant workers who illegally entered or stayed in the Malaysian state of Sabah mainly to work at oil palm plantations were inhumanely treated when they were caught and placed in immigration detention centres.

The Coalition of Sovereign Migrant Workers (KBMB), which is made up of seven groups – one in Hong Kong and six in Indonesia – said it had launched an investigation into the lived experiences of Indonesian migrant workers after stories of abuse were “widely circulating among oil palm plantation workers” amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

An Indonesian migrant worker pictured on a palm oil plantation in Malaysia in early 2020. Photo: AP

It found that at least 1,082 Indonesians were deported from Sabah between June and September, more than 70 per cent of whom were undocumented palm oil workers. But from interviews with more than 40 deportees – including 21 men, 20 women and two children aged 14 and 10– sent back by Sabah authorities to Indonesia’s South Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara and West Nusa Tenggara provinces, the coalition established that they were detained in cramped cells, given meals that were raw and stale, and subject to “inhumane and degrading punishments that occurred regularly”.

Detainees in every block of the detention centre, which was referred to as PTS, had to line up for a headcount at 6am every morning, before taking turns reciting the words “Good morning, cikgu (teacher)” to the guards, who in turn would tell them to lower their heads and put their hands behind their backs. Those who made a mistake were kicked and hit, and had to thank those who had beat them, the investigation found. They would also be punished by being forced to “squat on the floor all day long”.

If they did not say thank you when they were hit, they would be hit again

Abu Mufakhir, KBMB member

“If they did not say thank you when they were hit, they would be hit again,” said Abu Mufakhir, KBMB member, adding that those interviewed felt they “were really treated like animals”.