Zainon Ahmad - Role of Media in Protecting Migrants - Manila 14 Oct 2011
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REPORTING ON VIOLENCE AND EMERGENCIES Regional Media Conference for Southeast and East Asia Manila, Philippines 14 October 2011 Panel 2: The role of media in protecting the most vulnerable Zainon Ahmad, Consultant Editor, The Sun Daily (Malaysia) Role of Medi a in Prot ecting Migrants Talking Points ------------------- Many roles of the media. More and more roles have been given to the media of late. Originally just to inform. Maybe wit h a little comment at first but wit h more comment later. In line wi th the r ole of a watc hdo g. Some equate th is t o be ing a busybody. By what right? Under watch dog role --- it protec ts the environment, protects f orests, protects children, protect women, p rotects about ev erything. Protects everything that needs protection including, of course, press freedom. And now the media must also protect migrants. Do mig ran ts nee d protect ion ? Of course the y do . Easy to come to that conclusion by just observing, and reading daily reports about them. In Malaysi a there are clos e to four mill ions of them. About 1.6 million legal migrants and the rest illegal. From Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, China, the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Vietnam. Documented workers, undocumented workers and asylum seekers.
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Transcript of Zainon Ahmad - Role of Media in Protecting Migrants - Manila 14 Oct 2011
8/3/2019 Zainon Ahmad - Role of Media in Protecting Migrants - Manila 14 Oct 2011
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---- some subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude in the
domestic, agricultural, food service, construction, plantation, industrial
and fisheries sectors. Live in squalor.
Some are victims of sexual exploitation, some victims of domestic
violence..
Some are victimized by their employers, employment agents or
traffickers who supply migrant labourers and victims of sex trafficking.
Debt bondage.
Foreign workers --- multi-billion ringgit enterprise.
Big bucks. Even some officials are involved.
Malaysian media do not shy away from covering plight. Bad employers,
“ugly Malaysians”. Court cases given wide publicity. Even affects
bilateral relations. Especially with Indonesia.
(Cases of good employers. Provide training. Education.)
Picture stories of where they live.
Accidents. Insufficient protection given in some accident prone work places.
In oil palm estates. Construction sites.
Complaints of being underpaid. Low salaries, one of the reasons why they
are recruited.
Complaints of not being paid.
But not all of them are the compliant, subservient workers. Some are
schemers. Cases of employers becoming victims.
Some are involved in crime.
Slums, ghettoes.
How to end the never endind problem?
8/3/2019 Zainon Ahmad - Role of Media in Protecting Migrants - Manila 14 Oct 2011
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1. Refugee swap deal?
2. Transfer the problem?
3. Encourage locals to take jobs migrants are performing.
4. On-going programme “to solve the problems of foreign workers” amnesty
and biometric registration. Thank you.
