It said the announcement that all foreigners with expired social visit passes were required to leave Malaysia by April 21 failed to take into account the difficulty faced by foreigners to arrange for their return home on such short notice.
“It was entirely unreasonable for the Immigration Department to treat foreigners overstaying in Malaysia as if they were doing so deliberately,” LFL coordinator Zaid Malek said in a statement.
“Many have been stuck here due to travel restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and their undocumented status is due to the inability of the Immigration Department to facilitate their predicament during these unprecedented times.”
He said the migrants should not be viewed or treated as criminals for overstaying.
Zaid said Myanmar nationals, whose country was in political turmoil, were also forced to return home in spite of the dangers they might face.
He said LFL viewed the announcement as “part of a series of unreasonable actions by the government in its crackdown against migrants and refugees”.
“Earlier this year, Malaysia deported 1,086 Myanmar nationals despite a court order halting the repatriation, breaching its international obligation of non-refoulement and potentially dooming the lives of Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers,” he said.
He said the Immigration Department was “seen to be allowed to run afoul of the law”.
Zaid said another example was the incarceration of Simon Adavize Momoh, “who despite having paid his fine for a drink-driving offence, has been detained for a month as he is now deemed an ‘undesirable immigrant’ under section 8 (3)(d) of the Immigration Act”.
He said this was an “arbitrary and inhumane exercise of power” by the immigration director-general “especially as it was likely they did not inform Simon or his family of his sudden status as an ‘undesirable immigrant’ before he was detained”.
“We can draw no other conclusion other than that the government is encouraging and implementing xenophobia in its policies and enforcement of the law with absolute disregard to the impact it has on all foreigners currently in Malaysia,” he said.