Amnesty Urges Malaysia to Stop Whipping Illegals

Until recently, caning was an infrequent practice in Malaysia, authorized as a supplementary punishment for many crimes but used only 13 times in 2001. The practice has been revived now as a punishment for illegal immigrants, most of whom come from Indonesia. Amnesty International has requested that the practice be stopped, calling it cruel and unlikely to deter immigrants or asylum-seekers. Malaysia, however, faces a major foreign policy dilemma: how to respond to a likely influx of people from its poorer neighbors. Complicating matters even more, in the wake of strict government policies to get rid of those working in the country illegally, some Malaysian employers are complaining about a lack of laborers. - YaleGlobal

Amnesty Urges Malaysia to Stop Whipping Illegals

Reuters
Monday, August 12, 2002

JAKARTA (Agency): Amnesty International urged Malaysia on Tuesday to stop using whipping as a punishment, after several illegal immigrants were sentenced to caning in the past week, Reuters reported.

Around half an estimated 600,000 illegals left the country before the government's four-month amnesty ended on July 31, according to the human rights group.

Since then around a dozen, mostly Indonesians, have been sentenced to one or two strokes of the cane and jail terms of up to two years.

"Whipping someone is cruel, inhuman and degrading," Amnesty International said in a statement.

"Such a punishment should have no place in the world today," it said, adding that caning was unlikely to deter economic migrants or asylum seekers.

Recent changes to the Immigration Act prescribe mandatory whipping of up to six strokes, fines and up to five years imprisonment. Anyone who employs workers without papers is liable to the same punishments.

One of Malaysia's main foreign policy concerns is how to stop its nation of 23 million people being inundated with immigrants from poorer, more populous neighbours.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Indonesia's President Megawati Soekarnoputri discussed the issue when they met in Bali last week.

Malaysian construction firms have complained of a shortage of laborers since the drive began to get immigrants to go home.

Most of the country's large plantation firms employ foreign workers through legal channels, but vegetable farms and horticulture could be hit harder, and hotels and restaurants may find casual labor in shorter supply.

Caning is a supplementary punishment for at least 40 crimes in Malaysia, but it was only used 13 times last year in cases ranging from rape to drug possession, according to local rights group Suaram.

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