PETALING JAYA: A lawyer has urged the Immigration Department to stop deporting documented foreign workers punished for violating the movement control order (MCO) to check the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
Balakrishna Balaravi said MCO offenders were not criminals and documented foreign workers did not deserve another round of punishment by being sent home.
“In fact, no one should be arrested for violating the MCO as it is merely a summons offence,” he told FMT.
Balakrishna said small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which relied on foreign workers would also suffer at a time when they were asking for government assistance.
He noted that even the nation’s top cop, Abdul Hamid Bador, had said last week that the names of those found guilty of violating the MCO would not be recorded in the criminal register.
Balakrishna said he represented four Bangladeshi factory workers in Menglembu, near Ipoh, who were arrested on March 30 for breaching the MCO.
“They were charged in court on April 2 and bail was denied despite it being a bailable summons offence,” he said.
He said upon a revision application in the High Court on April 30, the four were produced again in the Magistrate’s Court.
“Since they had been in remand for 31 days, they pleaded guilty and were sentenced to one month’s jail from the date of arrest,” he said.
Instead of being freed and returned to their employer, Balakrishna said, the men were handed over to the immigration authorities to be held at the Langkap detention centre.
“I am told by an officer that the director-general of the department has instructed all those sentenced for MCO violation to be deported,” he said.
Balakrishna said he had written to the immigration director-general and the state director and was waiting for a response.
“We may seek legal redress if the Bangladeshis are not freed from detention,” he said.
On April 21, FMT also reported that 41 Myanmar nationals who were fined RM1,000 each for celebrating the “Thingyan” (Songkran) festival at their workers’ hostel had been handed over to the Immigration authorities.
The workers, aged between 19 and 34, had pleaded guilty for violating the MCO, an offence under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act.
The penalty is a maximum RM1,000 fine or six months’ jail or both.
Source : https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/05/04/dont-deport-documented-foreigners-for-mco-violation-immigration-urged/