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.
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
RSS