Foreign labourers, including Burmese people, who used to work in the Chinese market in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, are currently unemployed because they are not being allowed to continue their jobs.
After Malaysian authorities paid a visit to the market yesterday, shop owners have not allowed foreign labourers to work. Therefore they are now unemployed, Ko Ye Soe Lin said.
"It is because the authorities had said that the last date was May 31. They give the foreign labourers a chance until June 1. They already had orders to arrest them today. Therefore, many police personnel came here today. Police, local militia, the volunteer corps (RELA) and Banda Banra's municipal service men all came here. The last date was officially announced in the newspapers,” he said.
On May 6, Kuala Lumpur's Mayor had already announced that jobs, which were held by foreign labourers, would be replaced by Malaysian labourers on June 1. Therefore, owners have stopped employing foreign labourers.
Currently, owners have not yet given the foreign labourers their salaries. Therefore, the migrants are facing many difficulties,” said Ko Ye Soe Lin.
"Now how we will survive depends on the situation. We have no choice. We are watching carefully as to how the authorities will respond to this situation. It is a real circumstance. It is because we have not got our salaries yet. Therefore, our survival depends on our small amount of money," a foreign labourer said.
Nobody was arrested in the Chinese market yesterday. 121 people were arrested in Jalan Silang and the Central market. Among them, 43 people were illegal migrants, mentioned in 'The New Strait Times', a Malaysian daily newspaper.
Although owners in this market depend a lot on foreign labourers, instead of Malaysian labors, this matter will be difficult to solve, said Ko Ye Min Htun, who works at the Burma Workers' Rights Protection Committee (BWRPC).
"Here, bosses depend on them. In the Chinese market, most goods are illegal and imported from the black market. Businessmen do not want to hire domestic labourers because there are various complicated laws. The work is also very hard like cleaning the shop and closing the shop. Things are carried from other places to open the shop on time. So it is a very difficult job. Most labourers are illegal migrants. I think there is no way to solve this problem," Ko Ye Min Htun said.
Meanwhile, the aim of this project is to get jobs for domestic labourers. Businessmen are worrying that there will be a shortage of labourers in hard jobs. Burmese, Bangladeshi, Nepali, and other foreign migrants have been working in the Chinese market. There are over 2,000 Burmese labourers working in the Chinese market.
