Welcome to the very first post of our new series, Confessions of a Pupil. The nine-month pupillage journey is a rite of passage for every aspiring Malaysian lawyer. And boy, is it a colourful journey!
So, we thought we'd bring you along as we go through these nine months. Whatever we share will be personal, so regardless whether you are a lawyer, a pupil, a student, or the boy who lives down the lane, we hope this series can bring value to you. :)
(Technically, the title should be Confessions of Two Pupils, but it ain't got the same ring :p)
Choosing Tenaganita
Way before we got selected to serve at Tenaganita, the refugee and migrant worker issue cropped up as a controversial topic during one of the KL Bar's introductory sessions to legal aid for pupils. Since we love ourselves some controversy, we ended up picking Tenaganita to spend our 14 weeks of legal aid.
But in all seriousness, we chose Tenaganita because we simply believe in the protection of refugees and migrants as fellow human beings — and the pursuit of accessibility of justice to all. As you will also come to realise through this article, no one should be denied basic rights just because they lack government-issued papers.
Corrupt Agents & Officials
There are several people in Tenanganita who are hard to miss. One of them is an officer (let's call them Chriz) who just could not give our ears any rest. Every time we encounter Chriz, we can be sure to expect a never-ending rant on how migrant workers are being exploited and left without work all because of the government.
Even though our ears may be bleeding after the rant, the problems that Chriz brought up are as real and serious as can be.
Here's the low-down — the government issues a certain amount of work permits to foreigners every year to supplement the manpower required to run our economy. Every work permit should correspond to an available job.
Many migrant workers would rack up debts and pay steep fees to agents in order to obtain a Malaysian work permit, and come here to earn a better living.
Unfortunately, these migrants enter Malaysia just to find themselves trapped without any employment and their passports taken away by these unscrupulous agents.
They've been scammed. So, why are they issued a work permit when there are no jobs available for them? How does this happen?
It's (allegedly) corruption. These "agents", after extorting exorbitant fees from these vulnerable migrant workers, would bribe immigration officials to issue bogus work permits to the workers.
These "agents" would then bring the workers in, just to leave them jobless, penniless, and helpless, while the coffers of these "agents" and officials are filled to the brim with the hard-earned money of these migrant workers.
No Rights, No Remedies, No Justice
A heavily pregnant Burmese lady walked in one day with her husband (let's call them Jill & Jack). She had a problem with her pregnancy. If not for her friends who sponsored the couple a visit to a private clinic, they would've been oblivious to the life-threatening issue. After running some tests, the doctor told them that they had to go to a hospital. But without any papers, they were denied healthcare at public hospitals.
Usually, we would refer refugees over to our friends at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) but given the urgency of the matter this was an exception. We assisted Jill & Jack to register under the UNHCR website to aid their chances in getting treatment at a public hospital.
Upon probing further, we got to learn that Jill was a freedom fighter — who once gave public speeches and led protests but was forced to flee from persecution and the threat of death due to her involvement in resisting the military junta government.
For Jill & Jack, it's out of the frying pan and into the fire. What do they get for standing up against oppressors? They become victims of a new type of oppression known as "no alternatives."
They Are Better Than Us
Another thing that opened our eyes during our time in Tenaganita is how unwarranted the prejudice towards migrants is.
Through our interactions with them, it's painfully obvious that they are just like us — if not better than us. It's shameful.
One migrant worker (let's call him Ram Lee) who came in because his colleagues and himself had not been paid their wages for a few months and sought our help.
Even though he was barely scraping by at this point, he still believed that his employer will stick to their word to pay him his wages. Despite his circumstance, Ram Lee still chose to see the good in his employer.
He was never once entitled although he very well should be. He even declined our offer to give him a lift when he left the office. (But we were more insistent to not let him waste more money on Grab haha!)
Our society's perception that these migrants are more likely to be criminals is seriously misplaced. Statistics indicate that locals commit crimes at a disproportionately higher rate than migrants.
This means that a local is more likely to rob you as compared to a migrant! So, the next time you're in a congested LRT and you're about to take a step closer to one direction — perhaps step closer to a migrant.
No Recourse
A question we often pondered was — "why don't these migrant workers just sue?" Like in Ram Lee's case, his employer.
The reason is because they are held ransom by their employers, who have the power to arbitrarily terminate their work permits at any time.
The harsh reality is this — the consequence of migrant workers going against their employers is deportation. Unlike us, migrant workers don't have the luxury of finding a part time job or have a rich uncle to fund their litigation endeavours.
Losing their job and being sent back to their home countries mean (1) loss of household income; (2) loss of opportunity to return to Malaysia; and (3) survival in an economy that is facing a market deficiency.
A crucial piece of context to appreciate as to why migrant workers come here is that our grass, is truly greener. No one would opt for the discrimination, prejudice, ill-treatment and job uncertainty that migrant workers face here, if they didn't have to.
The next time you're about to complain about your job — check your privilege, and maybe some perspective of the relativity of your situation might help you feel better.
Unsung Heroes
The women and men of Tenaganita are fighting for a cause that not many Malaysians can relate to. Be that as it may, they are still fighting a damn good fight!
An eye-opening lesson of humanity — that sums up our experience in Tenaganita is the empathy and compassion that Tenaganita officers embody, day in day out with the migrant workers they serve. It puts the rest of us to shame.
We should strive to be like them; to see through the barriers of race and nationality and see migrant workers and refugees as fellow human beings.
To learn more about Tenaganita, visit their website here.