Worried about being arrested at risk of undocumented Malaysian vaccine push | Coronavirus pandemic news

In the fight against the coronavirus wave caused by the deadly delta mutation, Malaysia is working to ensure that all adults across the country receive two doses of the vaccine by October.

In order to speed up the process and achieve herd immunity faster, it has recently made efforts to encourage immigrants and refugees to come forward for vaccination.

But after a year of arrests and an explosion of xenophobic speech, some immigrants and refugees have become cautious.

Mohammad Zubair, a Rohingya refugee from Kuala Lumpur, told Al Jazeera that although he registered the jab for himself in early August, when the government opened a walk-in center for undocumented immigrants, he was still trying to decide whether to take his wife. . Immigration next week, because she has not been recognized as a refugee, he fears that she will be arrested.

“If I take her to get vaccinated, the police might stop us on the road,” he said. “I can take her away under one condition: if the government can ensure that undocumented persons can be vaccinated, and will not be arrested on the way or at the vaccination center.”

Fearing retaliation, Al Jazeera used the pseudonyms of Mohammad Zubair and the other refugees interviewed for this article.

According to an investigation by Doctors Without Borders, undocumented immigrants and refugees are eager to get vaccinated, but worry that if the information of government ministers is different, going to the vaccine center will put them at risk of being arrested. [Hasnoor Hussain/Al Jazeera]

When the vaccine was introduced at the end of February, Malaysia sought to build trust with the millions of immigrants living and working in the country to encourage them to get vaccinated. But in June, the authorities conducted a new round of immigration arrests.

Now, the government seems to be extending its olive branch again. But for refugees like Mohammad Zubair, the current situation bears unwelcome similarities to the first few months of the pandemic.

Mixed message

As early as March 2020, Malaysian Defense Minister and current Deputy Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob stated that the government will not arrest anyone seeking COVID-19 testing or treatment based on their immigration status.But two months later, he announced The amnesty period has passed, The authorities conducted a series of raids on apartments and workplaces under the coronavirus lockdown. This resulted in the arrest of more than 2,000 people and an outbreak of COVID-19 in immigration detention centers.

Khairy Jamaluddin, the Minister of Science in charge of the vaccination program, has emphasized since the launch of the vaccine that immigration status should not be a barrier to entry.

“[Undocumented migrants] On February 17, Carey told the media that they are free to stand up and that they will believe that the government will vaccinate them instead of detaining them. vaccine. “

But the next few months are less reassuring.

On May 29, Interior Minister Hamzah Zainudin stated that Malaysia would “round up” undocumented immigrants to “help” them and “protect Malaysians.”

“if [undocumented migrants] Don’t come out to get the vaccine, we [will] Hunt them down,” he told the media, adding that the authorities will work with employers and embassies to keep people on file for vaccination purposes.

In June, more than 500 people were captured in immigration raids, including on June 26, when 39 people were holding United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) ID cards, including those who were arrested in a raid on the wholesale market.

According to BenarNews, an online news service affiliated with Radio Free Asia, in the same month, the government began setting up temporary detention centers to accommodate newly arrested immigrants waiting for vaccination.

Dirk van der Tak, the mission leader of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Malaysia, said that arresting immigrants for vaccination is “backfire”.

Research conducted by Doctors Without Borders in May and June this year found that many immigrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, are willing to come forward as long as they have safe and free access to vaccines.

“The crackdown on undocumented immigrants must stop because it will prevent health-seeking behavior, including active vaccination,” he said.

The continued crackdown on undocumented immigrants and xenophobic speech has exacerbated fear and mistrust among immigrants and refugees who do not have legal status in Malaysia [Hasnoor Hussain/Al Jazeera]

According to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in addition to the 1.7 million documented foreign workers in Malaysia counted by the Ministry of Human Resources in 2020, Malaysia is also considered to be home to 2 to 4 million undocumented immigrants. As of the end of June 2021, there are still nearly 180,000 refugees registered with the UN refugee agency, most of whom are from Myanmar.

Malaysia is not a signatory of the UN Refugee Convention, nor does it recognize refugees under its legal system. People who register with UNHCR are not usually arrested, but refugee community groups estimate that tens of thousands of people are waiting to be registered, and this process may take several years. While they wait for recognition, they risk being arrested as undocumented immigrants.

‘Immigration Interrogation Center’

Mohammad Zubair’s wife and 7-year-old daughter arrived in Malaysia in April 2019 and are awaiting registration with the UN refugee agency. He told Al Jazeera that they are worried about their arrest. The country has implemented the most stringent one since March 2020. It is locked. He also only goes out to do his job: sweeping the floor or mowing the grass.

The pandemic has increased hostility towards immigrants and refugees, especially Rohingya, who have mainly regarded Malaysian Muslims as refuge for many years.

At the beginning of 2020, the authorities pushed back ships carrying Rohingya asylum seekers on the grounds of efforts to prevent the coronavirus, and detained passengers from other ships for illegal entry. In April 2020, the Minister of the Interior stated that the Rohingya had no status, rights or basis for requesting the Malaysian government. Two months later, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin stated that the pressure of the pandemic meant that the country “can no longer Accept more” Rohingya.

Now, as the pandemic has clearly worsened, the anti-foreigner and anti-Rohingya rhetoric is Resurfacing.

In June this year, the Minister of the Interior and the Director of the Immigration Department visited two apartment complexes in Penang to check the number of foreigners, especially Rohingya. Previously, residents complained that they were “dirty”, “noisy” and “Drugs.” The Minister of the Interior also posted on his official Facebook page that he had ordered the authorities to monitor areas where large numbers of foreigners live, “to maintain public peace.”

Also in June, the Immigration Service shared a poster on its official Facebook page with the title “Rohingya immigrants, your arrival is unwelcome” with pictures of armed law enforcement officers and immigration boats. After an uproar, it was deleted.

Naw Naw, a refugee registered with the UNHCR from Kachin State, Myanmar, told Al Jazeera that his experience of receiving the first dose of the vaccine at the Kuala Lumpur National Stadium in July was painful.

According to him, a member of the Malaysian Paramilitary Volunteer Team, the organization’s Malay acronym, found him when he took out UNHCR’s identity document to fill out the vaccine consent form. According to the government website, RELA is part of the Ministry of the Interior and its mission is to “combine illegal immigration.” Volunteers have also been deployed to vaccination sites to help ensure physical distance.

“[The RELA member] Talk to me loudly in the crowd. I think he treats me like a criminal and humiliates me in public,” Naw Naw said. “He doesn’t understand my letter from the United Nations… He asked me in Malay,’How did you enter our country without a passport? ? ‘”

Refugees and undocumented immigrants fear that they may be arrested for sharing personal details for vaccination [File: Fazry Ismail/EPA]

After checking Naw Naw’s UNHCR identity documents written in Malay and English, RELA members consulted with his superiors and then took Naw Naw to a separate room where the police were checking the documents of a few other people. After the police discussed Naw Naw’s case with a senior official, Naw Naw was finally allowed to continue the vaccination.

He said that the experience made him feel like “in an immigration interrogation center.”

“I am really worried about whether I will be arrested,” he said. “Although I have UN documents, they are still investigating me. How can anyone without a witness dare to get a vaccine?”

Al Jazeera contacted Carey’s press secretary to clarify the government’s policy on undocumented immigration vaccines, how immigration data is used, and whether there are police, immigration officials, and RELA personnel at the vaccination center, but was told that the minister could not be contacted for comment.

‘Fear and distrust’

Last weekend, Malaysia’s COVID-19 working group announced a timetable for walk-in vaccination at 9 locations, including a national stadium that will be designated for immigration, including undocumented immigrants, from August 9.

The official media Bernama reported that the Immigration Bureau will not interfere with the vaccination plan of immigrants, nor will it send officials near the vaccination point to ensure “a safe passage for foreigners.”

“Vaccination of millions of irregular immigrants in Malaysia is still part of the country’s plan to control COVID-19 within its borders,” Bernama said.

But regardless of official policy, the fear of being arrested when vaccinated is widespread, especially among people who lack documents, a volunteer who helped Kachin refugees and people in asylum-seeking communities register for the vaccine told Al Jazeera.

More than 300 people from five countries were detained in an immigration raid on a construction site in Denkir, Selangor in June [Hasnoor Hussain/Al Jazeera]

Since March 2021, the UN refugee agency has suspended its service of renewing refugee identity cards, which has exacerbated their concerns. Since the beginning of the lockdown, many people have been unable to renew their expired documents.

Community volunteers said that another concern of some asylum seekers is that people must provide their names and addresses to record their vaccine status, and some worry that the authorities might use this information to raid their homes.

Van der der of MSF warned that the growing fear among the immigrant population during the pandemic will be difficult to overcome, and Malaysia’s mixed information on immigration may become a continuing obstacle to obtaining a vaccine.

He urged Malaysia to clearly end all policies that require the arrest of immigrants and refugees seeking medical services, including a 20-year policy called Circular 10/2001, which requires the government to Medical staff report undocumented immigration To the police and immigration services.

“In addition to being unfamiliar with existing vaccination registration pathways, fear and mistrust…have hindered the country’s COVID-19 response at a time when everyone’s access to health care is essential to overcome the pandemic,” he said.