Malaysian courts have ordered 45 illegal foreigner workers to be caned -- the first to be given the colonial-era punishment in a continuing immigration crackdown, news reports said yesterday.
A total of 87 Indonesians, Indians, Bangladeshis, Thais and Chinese nationals were convicted and sentenced on Monday on charges of illegal entry and using expired work permits or forged documents, the Star newspaper reported. The sentences were handed down by various courts in the cities of Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Klang.
The Star said 41 people were sentenced to between two months and a year in prison while one man from the tsunami-hit Indonesian region of Aceh was sentenced to two weeks in jail. Of the remaining 45, one Indonesian was ordered to receive two lashes of the rattan cane while the rest were to be caned once, the Star said. It is not clear if they will appeal.
The New Straits Times and the Star said most of the illegal migrants pleaded guilty and asked the court for leniency, saying they were cheated by agents or employers.
An Immigration Department spokeswoman, contacted by reporters, refused to comment on the caning judgments that came despite appeals by the Indonesian government.
The Immigration Department spokeswoman would only say that 2,696 people had been detained nationwide since the crackdown against illegal workers began on March 1 after the end of a four-month amnesty.
"We will investigate each case before deciding whether to charge them in court," she said, on customary condition of anonymity. "Until then they will stay at migrant detention camps."
The crackdown has strained ties between Malaysia and Indonesia, which accuses the Malaysian government of being lax against local employers who hire illegal workers but do not pay their wages.
Malaysia says it is ready to accept Indonesian workers if they come in with valid papers but accuses Jakarta of charging excessive fees for the workers to return here.
About 450,000 illegal migrants, mostly Indonesians, left during the amnesty but around 400,000 are believed to be still in the country. In addition, some 1 million foreigners work legally here.
Foreign labor forms the backbone of Malaysia's work force. They do menial jobs that locals refuse to do, especially at construction sites, plantations and in restaurants.
Human rights groups have said that caning, a holdover of British colonial days, is an excessive punishment for nonviolent crimes. It is a standard punishment for more than 40 crimes in Malaysia, ranging from sexual abuse to drug use.
Administered with a thick rattan stick, it splits the skin and leaves permanent scars.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to