A cry for life

This weeks been a crazy week. So many thing to talk about so little time. In fact, i could write ten posts with all the issues i have waltzing in my mind. But i'l just jumble them up, whether they would be coherent to each another or not. 

Last week's been bitter sweet. From the Mumbai killings, to My boss's acquittal from her 13 year-long  trial, but the one thing that struck me most this friday last week was a case that was brought to our office. I personally attended to a case where a distraught father came to our office to report the case of his wife and 10 months old daughter who had been arrested by the immigration. 

See, the reason which peeved us most was, the mother of the child was an Indonesian with a legitimate passport and a working permit, where else the child had a UNHCR refugee status card like her father. 

As the father pleaded to have his sick daughter released ( she had high fever, flu and cough), the immigration officials said that it was impossible even when UNHCR tried to intervene. The mother of the child was asked to leave her daughter behind as she had legitimate documents to walk away free. As any mother in their right mind would have done, she fought hard to stay with her baby, but they insisted. 

When Immigration realised the ruckuss the NGOs and UNHCR were making over this case, they decided to revise their decision in not letting both mother and child go. The mother was to be re-arrested and the child would not be released into UNHCR's care as promised, due to the policy that a migrant cannot get pregnant here while on work permit or else they will be deported. 

While all this was going on, and we worked our asses off trying to get Immigration to talk to us over the weekend due to the possible fatal outcome of the sick baby, there was still no medical attention for the child, despite our call to make medical treatment top priority for this case.  The child's father is still sitting her in this very office, while i type out an appeal to all you people to pray for his family. 

Did you know that

1. Lower class migrants are called migrants/domestic workers/laborers and higher class migrants are called expats. Expats are allowed to buy property, assets, have children. Domestic workers are NOT allowed to get pregnant in this country or they will be repatriated
2. Babies and children are protected under UNICEF and the CRC convention which malaysia has signed, yet there is no legal protection for undocumented and stateless children. They are thrown into detention camps, held up in lock ups with or without their parents should they be caught, even if they do have a refugee status UNHCR card.
3. Immigration and other departments do not hold true to their words, they can change their decision any time without issuing a proper memorandum orstatement to justify the factor pertained to changing their decision. 
4. You can be arrested for one allegation in malaysia and be charged for another allegation      ( which you are not arrested for) if they fail to prove the first allegation to be true. For example, the immigration had no business of catching a passport holder with a legitimate permit. By right, they owe her and the embassy an apology on their negligence in checking first before arresting. However, they looked into other aspects which they can charge her with so that they can scott free from their impudence. Therefore, they tried to charge her for getting married ( basic human rights? ), which they couldnt because she wasn't legally married in court. And then they charged her for having a child illegally( basic human rights too?)
5. The child or anyone who is in need of  medical attention can be denied medical intervention or care at detention camps if the officials FEEL like it. There is no policy towards it to support their actions.( basic human rights denied again?) The child is also not allowed to be given diapers or milk ( as the miigration officers deem fit) by strangers. 
6. There is no clear cut system on what the visitation hours are like and who can or cannot visit at immigration camps. It is up to the official's discretion and how much kopi u can afford to belanja. 
7. The common procedure for repatriation for a migrant worker is to be sent to a detention camp where the living conditions are a bed or thorns, and then be repatriated once they have settled issues , or some say, served their punishment for their wrongdoings. Even if the person is a child or elderly, or in this case, a baby. The country embassy can request to have the person/child in shelter custody if they come to know of a vulnerable case like this. However,  most of the time the embassies do not know of these cases, unless they are informed by nosy organisations as the one i work for. 
8. There are three types of rules in our country, regulations, policies and the law. The law preceeds the rest. Policies can be disputed by the LAW. But here, it is on ad-hoc and "suka-suka" basis. There is more than one way to manipulate the law to adhere to the policy rather than to manipulate the law to contravene the policy. Cool system yeah? Malaysians aren't that dumb i guess..

I hope that you have taken time to read this post of mine. And i hope that somehow in any way that you can, you would find it in your heart to do domething about it. Pray, write a petition, spread the word, be nicer to a migrant the next time you see one. 

A 10 months old baby could be dying this very moment. This is your and my beautiful Malaysia truly Asia. It is a wonder i can sleep at night sometimes, knowing i am on such dangerous grounds built upon vicious laws which disregards all humanity....