Recently it was reported that the 'undocumented migrants' were deported to Myanmar despite a court order asking that the deportation be stayed temporarily - well, this may be a CONTEMPT OF COURT. The facts are still unclear, and we must wait for the full facts before commenting further....
Even the government MUST respect Court Orders....Will the DG of Immigration be facing yet another CONTEMPT OF COURT action? The last time, I believe, this happened was in 2001 - Leave was granted in July, and it ended with a Consent Order recorded after several days of hearings - after an admission, and agreement to remedy consequences....
Yes, the DG OF IMMIGRATION Malaysia had previously been subject to contempt proceedings in 2001, whereby this action was initiated by Migrant Workers from India - It was an HISTORIC OCCASION, for very seldom in the Commonwealth have we heard of contempt proceedings against Ministers or Director Generals of government departments.. What was be taken noted here, that Malaysia has a case where CONTEMPT proceedings have been commenced against the Director General of Immigration, where leave was granted - and the contempt action was successful.
The workers' ordeal began 20 months ago when they initiated a lawsuit against their former employer, Gopis Construction Sdn Bhd, whom they alleged failed to pay them their wages.
They then applied to the Immigration Department for permission to work on their own or alternatively be transferred to another employer.
On Dec 6 last year, the High Court ordered the Immigration Department to issue temporary work permits to the workers to enable them to work legally for a construction company, Central Generative Sdn Bhd....
In the earlier court order, the DG Immigration had agreed to issue work permits to the migrant workers to enable them to work for a different employer and stay legally in Malaysia.... but then the Immigration Department issued permits that already lapsed on receipt, or almost would lapse. This led to the initiation of contempt proceedings.[These migrants were then battling the previous employer in the Seremban Labour Court for unpaid wages, monies, etc...]
The workers claim that the Director-General of Immigration issued permits on April 19, but 13 of the permits had lapsed in January and February this year while the rest lapsed on July 8.
The workers are now seeking leave to commence contempt proceedings against the former Director-General of Immigration Aseh Che Mat and five other Immigration Department officers for failing to comply with the High Court order.
Their application was filed at the High Court last week and will be heard on July 25.
Despite court order, Malaysia’s Immigration says deported 1,086 Myanmar citizens today
Tuesday, 23 Feb 2021 06:54 PM MYT
BY IDA LIM
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An immigration truck carrying Myanmar migrants to be deported from Malaysia is seen in Lumut February 23, 2021. — Reuters pic Subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on news you need to know.
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 — The Immigration Department of Malaysia has announced that it has deported 1,086 Myanmar citizens, whom it described as illegal immigrants today, with the announcement made just hours after a High Court’s order to temporarily suspend any efforts to deport 1,200 individuals to Myanmar for one day.
In a statement this evening, Immigration Department of Malaysia’s (JIM) director-general Datuk Khairul Dzaimee Daud said the department had along with the cooperation of the Malaysian Armed Forces — particularly the Royal Malaysian Navy, the National Task Force (NTF) and the Myanmar Embassy — successfully carried out the programme today to repatriate the 1,086 individuals.
The statement did not say what time the repatriation exercise for the 1,086 persons was carried out or completed today.
He said that all these 1,086 Myanmar citizens have been detained in immigration detention centres nationwide since 2020, and that they were sent back to Myanmar via three Myanmar navy ships through the Malaysian navy’s base in Lumut, Perak.
“JIM wishes to stress that all detainees that were repatriated are Myanmar citizens who are illegal immigrants and do not involve the Rohingya ethnicity or asylum seekers. All of them who were repatriated had agreed to return voluntarily without force from any quarters,” he said in the statement posted on the department’s Facebook page.
Khairul Dzaimee said the repatriation exercise is part of the Immigration Department’s continuing process to deport detainees held at Malaysia’s immigration detention centres, adding that such deportation efforts had slowed in 2020 as many countries had closed their borders.
He went on to say that the Immigration Department will continue efforts through the Home Ministry and Wisma Putra or the Foreign Ministry to obtain the agreement of related countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and Bangladesh to repatriate their citizens who were currently detained in Malaysia’s immigration detention centres in large numbers.
His statement did not touch on the High Court’s order, or the ongoing lawsuit filed by two human rights groups who were seeking to stop the Malaysian government’s deportation of 1,200 individuals to Myanmar.
About the High Court order and the lawsuit
Just hours before the Immigration Department released the statement on Facebook, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur had today granted a temporary stay order to suspend the government’s plans to deport the 1,200 Myanmar citizens, as the court would hear the lawsuit tomorrow morning in Kuala Lumpur.
Yesterday, Amnesty International Malaysia and Asylum Access Malaysia had jointly filed for judicial review, following the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’s (UNHCR) confirmation that at least six persons registered with the UN agency were among those scheduled to be deported this afternoon.
Based on court documents sighted by Malay Mail, Asylum Access Malaysia and Amnesty International Malaysia had as Asylum Access Berhad and Aimal Sdn Bhd filed for judicial review against three respondents, namely the immigration director-general, the home minister and the government of Malaysia.
The judicial review bid by Amnesty International Malaysia and Asylum Access Malaysia includes the names and details of three UNHCR document holders and 17 minors who had at least one parent still in Malaysia.
In the court documents, the court orders sought by the two groups are for a quashing of the respondents’ decision to deport the three UNHCR document holders which had been recognised as refugees by the UNHCR, and a quashing of the respondents’ decision to deport the 17 children, and a quashing of the respondents’ decision to deport the 1,200 Myanmar nationals who were detained in immigration detention centres to Myanmar, as well as three separate prohibition orders against the respondents to disallow the deporting of the three UNHCR-recognised refugees, the 17 children and the 1,200 persons.
According to an online listing of the case, Amnesty International Malaysia and Asylum Access Malaysia’s joint application for leave for judicial review is set to be heard through video-conferencing tomorrow by High Court judge Datuk Seri Mariana Yahya.
Earlier today in a joint statement by Amnesty International Malaysia and Asylum Access Malaysia, Amnesty International Malaysia’s executive director Katrina Jorene Maliamauv said that the 1,200 individuals include some holders of valid UNHCR documents, asylum seekers and children separated from their parents who are still in Malaysia.
“In light of the court ruling, the government must respect the court order and ensure that not one of the 1,200 individuals is deported today.
“Instead, it must grant access to UNHCR to all 1,200 individuals and all immigration detention centres in general, which the government has denied since August 2019.
“This would enable the UN agency to verify asylum claims and identify refugees already registered,” she had said. - Malay Mail, 23/2/2021
Immigration Dept cheated us, foreign workers tell Suhakam
A group of 36 Indian migrant workers who claim to have 'been deceived' by the Immigration Department today appealed to the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) to assist them in getting valid work permits.
Fourteen of the workers representing the group handed over a memorandum to commissioner Harun Hashim at the Suhakam office this morning.
They were accompanied by their lawyers Charles Hector and Roland Engan as well as the director of Central Generative Sdn Bhd, Mohd Ali Abdul Wahid.
Their memorandum stated that their rights as workers had been violated by 'the delay and dishonesty of the Immigration Department' which they alleged issued them with expired work permits.
"We appeal to Suhakam to help us get our permits, noting that we have already paid the necessary levy and that what we are asking for is something that has already been ordered by the Kuala Lumpur High Court," the workers' spokesman Rajakannu Boopathy said.
He added that the delay by the Immigration department had deprived the group of their right to work legally in the country and had also resulted in several of the workers being arrested by police and detained at illegal immigrant detention camps.
Temporary work permit
Harun informed the workers that he will hand over the memorandum to the other Suhakam commissioners before deciding on a course of action.
"I can't decide on this issue on my own. This (memorandum) will go before the commission and we will conduct an initial enquiry to establish whether there should be a public enquiry," Harun said.
A copy of the memorandum was also handed over to the Bar Council this afternoon.
The workers' ordeal began 20 months ago when they initiated a lawsuit against their former employer, Gopis Construction Sdn Bhd, whom they alleged failed to pay them their wages.
They then applied to the Immigration Department for permission to work on their own or alternatively be transferred to another employer.
On Dec 6 last year, the High Court ordered the Immigration Department to issue temporary work permits to the workers to enable them to work legally for a construction company, Central Generative Sdn Bhd.
Contempt proceedings
The workers claim that the Director-General of Immigration issued permits on April 19, but 13 of the permits had lapsed in January and February this year while the rest lapsed on July 8.
The workers are now seeking leave to commence contempt proceedings against the former Director-General of Immigration Aseh Che Mat and five other Immigration Department officers for failing to comply with the High Court order.
Their application was filed at the High Court last week and will be heard on July 25.
According to Charles Hector, existing laws in the country only allow migrant workers to complain against their employers for violation of their rights but do no provide a mechanism for the worker to continue to work and earn legally in Malaysia.
"It is thus unfeasible for them to commence legal action," he said adding there was also no clear law and penalties against employers who violated migrant workers' rights.
"For example, an employer must provide the Immigration Department with a contract of employment as a condition for the issuance of the work permit (the expatriate identification pass), but when the employer fails to pay wages according to that contract, the department does not penalise the employer.
"There is no enforcement against employers. In fact, these workers' former employer, despite all his violations, is not blacklisted and continues to be given permits to recruit migrant workers," Hector said.
Required skills
Central Generative director Mohd Ali told malaysiakini that his company was incurring high costs due to the Immigration department's delay in issuing the worker's permits.
He said that the workers' levy fees amounting to more that RM40,000 was being borne by the company as the workers had entered a two-year contract with the company on Dec 6 last year, after the High Court order.
"We can't just leave these workers alone now after having invested so much in them. Furthermore, we have a lot of job opportunities and we need these workers who have the skills required.
"But we are suffering together with them because they can't work without the permits," Mohd Ali said.- Malaysiakini, 16/7/2001
Immigration, migrant workers told to settle dispute out of court
The High Court today told a group of Indian migrant workers and the Immigration Department to come to an amicable settlement over their dispute in the delay of issuing work permits.
Judge Faiza Thamby Chik, who was to have heard contempt proceedings against the department for not adhering to an earlier court order, told counsels representing both parties to "sit down and discuss the settlement".
He then adjourned the hearing to Nov 26.
Charles Hector, the lawyer representing the migrant workers, later told reporters that he had to discuss with his clients over their next course of action.
"We have not agreed to a settlement at the moment. I have to get instruction from my clients on the matter.
"However, we still feel that we should go on with the proceedings as the (Immigration) department has yet to issue the work permits promised to us. Furthermore, we are concerned with the costs incurred in the filing of this proceedings," he said.
On July 24, the 27 workers had initiated contempt proceedings against the Immigration Department, its former director-general Aseh Che Mat and five other officers for failing to heed a court ruling over the issuance of work permits.
On Dec 6 last year, the High Court ordered the department to issue temporary work permits to the workers to enable them to work legally for a construction company, Central Generative Sdn Bhd.
Re-issue permits
The workers claimed that the former DG eventually issued permits on April 19, but 13 of the permits lapsed in January and February this year while the rest lapsed on July 8.
Later, when the workers filed their application for contempt proceedings on July 24, the department reissued one-year work permits from April 19.
The workers are however seeking for permits to be issued from July this year.
"We will lose out on three months with the April 19 permits as they were only issued on July 25.
"Yesterday, the department informed the workers' current employer that they will re-issue permits from July 31, but until now, they have yet to do so," said Hector.
The Immigration Department was represented by federal counsel Mohd Abazafree Mohd Abbas.
Meanwhile, the workers are also seeking costs and compensation for
their ordeal and court proceedings. The High Court is scheduled to hear
the negligence suit on Sept 6. - Malaysiakini, 15/8/2001
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