Kris Khaira

From an email:

Dear All,

During the Parliamentary debate on Friday, the issue of RELA was raised again. There was a small report in the SUN (4 July 2008) of the supplementary question by YB Fong Poh Kuan (DAP-Batu Gajah) concerning disciplinary action against 9 RELA officers last year.

In reply to her question the Deputy Home Minister said, amongst other things, that “a special bill on Rela was being drafted and would be tabled in Parliament to ensure its effectiveness and give its members more powers.” ( quote from the SUN report).

Bernama also reported that the Home Ministry plans to upgrade RELA and accord its members more powers. Moreover, RELA is in the process of being made a government department and only needs cabinet approval for the process to be finalised.

The Minister disclosed that an allocation of RM15 million has been made to fund RELA operations. RELA has 520,000 members currently according to the report.

This needs to be discussed by ALL organizations working with and servicing migrants and refugees, as passing of the RELA Bill will only serve to legitimize RELA and its increased power. RELA comes under the Home Ministry and Immigration Department control. Neither the Police nor the Armed Forces in this country have any authority over RELA.
Please could the organizations concerned give some input as to the approach to be taken on the RELA issue and if and when a discussion should be held ASAP.

WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE PROVISIONS OF THE RELA BILL ARE AS IT HAS BEEN CLASSIFIED UNDER THE OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT SINCE LAST YEAR.

Thank You.

Regards,
Angeline
(JUMP)

Note for those new to the subject of RELA.
RELA is used to crackdown on undocumented immigrants in this country. This frequently includes refugees, registered by UNHCR, who are protected persons under international law and should not be deported to their home countries as their lives are in danger there. RELA does not recognize UNHCR documents as the Home Ministry does not recognize refugees. The Malaysian government has no proper immigration policy or system to cater for refugees and only allows UNHCR to register the refugees and give them UNHCR documents on humanitarian grounds. This puts refugees in a very difficult situation in which they struggle to survive in this country apart from having to face the possibility of being arrested and detained by RELA.

RELA is now in charge of security in Immigration Detention Centers, apart from operations to ‘roundup’ undocumented migrants.

Migrant workers, even those with legally recognized documents are also in danger of being arrested and detained by RELA. RELA is often very violent when arresting any migrant. The MWG (KL) has received numerous reports from migrant workers and refugees about ill-treatment of persons RELA detains. These acts of violence range from beating migrants( including minors and children) to sexual abuse of female migrants.