Agence France Presse

Putrajaya, February 2:

Malaysia extended a conditional amnesty to illegal immigrants indefinitely today after Indonesia asked for a delay in a planned crackdown as it struggles with the aftermath of the tsunami disaster. A three-month amnesty for hundreds of thousands of illegal workers expired at midnight on Monday, but a threatened nationwide sweep to arrest them was put on hold at the last minute. Home Minister Azmi Khalid said the decision to extend the amnesty was taken at a cabinet meeting today, based on a written request from Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. “It may appear to most Malaysians that we have backtracked but we must put ourselves in Indonesia’s shoes,” he said. “Imagine if our country was stuck by a huge disaster and within a month our fellow citizens were treated badly in another country, how would we feel?” Indonesians make up most of the illegal immigrants in Malaysia, many of them from Aceh province. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had also asked for an extension of the amnesty amid concerns that a large-scale return could worsen the humanitarian crisis. Nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants took the opportunity to go home during the three-month amnesty without facing any penalty, leaving at least the same number behind according to data.

Apart from Indonesia, illegal immigrants come from the Philippines, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka to take jobs in the construction, plantation and service industries in relatively prosperous Malaysia. The Philippine government had also asked Malaysia to extend the amnesty by a month to accommodate the estimated 170,000 Filipinos who failed to take the chance to leave the country legally, according to reports in Manila.

Azmi said an operation to track down illegal immigrants would go ahead, but the approach would be different. They would be finger printed and given a week to leave the country with the opportunity to return legally.

Malaysian immigration officials would be stationed in certain areas in Indonesia to facilitate their return, Azmi said. “We are working together to make this less burdensome to them (Indonesia). If people return to Indonesia and they do not work, they will become a burden to their country.” By gaining legal status in Malaysia they would be able to remit money home and this would help address the country’s economic problems.

If they did not leave Malaysia within the one-week grace period they would be deported and barred from ever re-entering the country, Azmi said.