Total population | |
---|---|
~80,000 | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Malaysia | 80,000 (UN estimate) [2] [note 1] |
Indonesia | 544 (2014) [7] |
Filipino refugees are persons originating from the country of the Philippines. Following the Moro conflict and subsequent major military operation in the islands of Mindanao during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos in 1970s, [8] thousands of Filipinos mainly from the Moro ancestry have sought refuge in neighbouring countries of Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, with majority of them mostly heading to the state of Sabah in Malaysia. [9] [10]
In addition to armed conflict in the southern Philippines, many Filipinos flee due to economic factors and hope for a better lives. Many are reluctant to return to their homeland that continues to be torn by violence and kidnappings. [3] [8]
Since the 1970s, thousands of Filipino refugees have emigrated to the state of Sabah, forcing the need for maintenance of the refugees. As Malaysia are not the signatory of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, the country have maintained that any newly arrived aliens are illegal immigrants rather than refugees. [2] [11] Although unlike the economically motivated illegal immigrants, the Filipino refugees have long been granted special permission to stay despite limited access to the state employment, social services and public amenities. [10]
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) establish its office in the state in 1977 with around $2.7 million have been allocated for the maintenance of the refugees children education, with most of it been allocated to the Sandakan area. [5] Despite this however, the Philippines side constantly accused the Malaysian side especially the Sabah authorities for victimising the refugees with the dismissal of their workers by Sabah businessmen. [5]
The total of Filipino refugees was only 20,367 in the first quarter of 1970. By 1978, it increased to over 92,000 with a non-official estimate put the total already reach 140,000. [6] The refugees rose to over 350,000 in 1989. As there is still no definite sign the conflict will permanently stopped, the influx of Filipino refugees continued even after the peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1976. [6]
Following the government decision to issue residency visas and a special card known as the IMM13 to the refugees, the UNHCR closed its office in 1987 after operating for 10 years. [2] [12] [13] [14] To this date, the main office being maintained in Kuala Lumpur. [15]
As there is no official estimate of the total of Filipino refugees in Indonesia, the exact population is unknown. Recent findings in 2014 found there are at least 544 Filipino refugees (mostly from the Bajau community) taking shelter in Derawan Island, Berau Regency, East Kalimantan. [7] It is believed their presence began in 2010 with some of the refugees claiming they are Malaysian citizens, although they were found with a special document released by the Malaysian government which stating they are not the citizen of that country during identity check-up by the Indonesian authorities. [16] Responding to the report, Indonesian President Joko Widodo ordering them to be sent back to their country in the Philippines immediately, [17] although it is still unknown whether the process of deportation has begun. Nunukan Regency in North Kalimantan also reportedly saw a large Filipino refugees presence as recently in early 2017. [18]
The UNHCR office in the Malaysian state of Sabah have been giving aid to the refugees for a period of 10 years; [12] however, following the closure of its office, many of the refugees have been roaming in and around Sabah. [14] Following the release of report from Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants in Sabah (RCI) which stated many of the Filipino refugees have illegally obtained Malaysian citizenship, the UNHCR began monitoring the situation. [19] However, since the UNHCR did not have any permanent presence in the state anymore, the monitoring capacity was limited. [20]
As the Philippines never have the intention to establish its own consulate in the Malaysian state of Sabah to look on the welfare of its citizens, [21] the blame was also put to the Philippines side for its lack of co-operation as the country continuously criticising the treatment towards its refugees without giving more of its own efforts to help and solve the problems of its own citizens. [22] [23]
By the end of 2014, UNHCR Malaysia together with UNICEF plans to support local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to conduct a workshop on birth registration which will be involving different government agencies; such as the Malaysian National Registration Department, local legal practitioners as well as relevant stakeholders. [12] Filipino refugees children also have been enrolled to recently established Alternative Learning Centre (ALC) that was set-up by Filipino volunteers in Sabah with a collaboration with various local NGOs. [24]
By 2016, under the Philippines administration reform of President Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippine government began to sign a deal with the Malaysian government for the gradual repatriation of Filipino refugees in Sabah. [25] The Philippines side also announced their plan to establish a consular office in the state along with the establishment of their own school and hospital to care for their nationals as had been recommended previously. [26] However, according to Philippine Representative from Palawan Jose C. Alvarez, they are more interested to establish a Palawan Business Office in the state than Philippine Office that will also giving the similar services like passport granting, renewal of travel documents and other requirements as well extending business assistance to the Filipino people when the need arises, giving excuses that it is only proper and logical to set up the main office if there are increasing number of Filipino traders especially from Palawan. [27]
The Filipinos in the state expressed their hopes that more attention will be given from the Filipino consular services especially on easy and better access in communication facilities, more friendly attitude from embassy officials and staff and transparency in all official transactions as they had repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction over how the manner of consular missions were conducted with the presence of "middlemen", delays in deliveries of travel documents, difficulties to telephone the main Philippine embassy in Kuala Lumpur and rudeness of some of the embassy officials and staff. [28]
The Malaysian government are criticised for its contrast policy in dealing with refugees; with different treatments have been compared between the non-Muslim Vietnamese refugees which are quickly being repatriated than the Muslim Filipino refugees which are still being maintained in the country until this day. [6] [29] In defending the presence of Filipino refugees, Ghazali Shafie who is the Home Minister at the time justified their position with the support of Deputy Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad:
- Their presence will not have adverse effects on the peace and order of the country because they intended to go back whereas the presence of Vietnamese immigrants could have adverse consequences on the country as they had no intention of returning to their homeland after the war. [6]
- Ghazali Shafie, Malaysian Home Minister.
Most of the Filipino refugees are issued with IMM13 documents by the Malaysian government during Mahathir administration, [30] with many of them have been controversially naturalised as citizen. [29] [31] [32]
Repatriation of Filipino refugees remain difficult due to the ongoing conflict in the southern Philippines. [9] [33] The latest peace deal between the Government of the Philippines and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is a step towards peace and stability in the southern Philippines. [3] The MILF have been welcoming the return of Filipino refugees from Malaysia as the peace is being gradually restored in their homeland. [32] The International Monitoring Team (IMT) led by Malaysia also monitoring the ceasefire between the Philippine government and MILF since 2010 and put hopes that further new administration of the Philippine government will put an end to the refugee issues which have plaguing the bilateral relations between the two countries. [34]
Group such as the MNLF under Nur Misuari have recently staging violent attacks to oppose the peace agreement between the MILF and the Philippine government forces with the latest major attack resulted in the Zamboanga City crisis in late 2013. [35] This presents a definite obstacle to repatriation and led to another new wave of refugees.
There are at least five camps for the Filipino refugees in Malaysia, such as in Kinarut in Papar, Telipok in Kota Kinabalu, Kampung Bahagia in Sandakan, Kampung Selamat in Semporna [13] and Kampung Hidayat in Tawau with many Sabah local politicians have repeatedly urging the closure of the camps and repatriation of the refugees to their home country as the camps have become the source of many criminal activities perpetrated by the refugees. [36]
In late 2016, the Sabah state government submit recommendations to the Malaysian federal government through the Main Committee on Management of Foreigners to move all the refugee placement schemes in the state to other more suitable locations far from the towns and industrial development areas. [37] Further in 2019 under a new Malaysian government, the IMM13 document for refugees from southern Philippines are being replaced with Temporary Sabah Pass (PSS) to solve the problems once and for all which have been ongoing since 1970s where the old document is misused by the refugees which subsequently posing threats to the security of the state. [38]
The huge Filipino refugee settlements in Sabah have mainly criticised by the locals there for contributing to the significant rise of rampant crimes, [39] with the refugees loyalty towards the country they seeking for refuge are also been questioned for the unstoppable crimes perpetrated from their own community [40] as a Filipino man was recently charged in court as recently in 2017 for supporting the ideology of Abu Sayyaf terrorist group. [41]
Part of the reason why there are Filipino Moro refugees in Malaysia is that they were fleeing the war and violence that destroyed their homes in Sulu and Mindanao, a violence arising out of the Moro conflict, an insurgency against the Philippine government which Malaysia publicly supported until the year 2001. [42] This was done to counter-act reconquest attempts by the Philippine centered Sultanate of Sulu, which used to rule Sabah, before sovereignty was transferred to Malaysia. Malaysia is criticized for being responsible for the war in the Philippines yet refuse to host refugees from the war they themselves caused. [42] Filipino refugees also feel trapped as the Malaysian government refuse granting citizenship to many such refugees, classfying them as a stateless people. [43]
Abu Sayyaf, officially known by the Islamic State as the Islamic State – East Asia Province, is a Jihadist militant and pirate group that followed the Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. It is based in and around Jolo and Basilan islands in the southwestern part of the Philippines, where for more than five decades, Moro groups had been engaged in an insurgency seeking to make Moro Province independent. The group is considered violent and is responsible for the Philippines' worst terrorist attack, the bombing of MV Superferry 14 in 2004, which killed 116 people. The name of the group was derived from Arabic abu, and sayyaf. As of April 2023, the group was estimated to have about 20 members, down from 1,250 in 2000. They use mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles.
Sabah is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalimantan province to the south. The Federal Territory of Labuan is an island just off Sabah's west coast. Sabah shares maritime borders with Vietnam to the west and the Philippines to the north and east. Kota Kinabalu is the state capital and the economic centre of the state, and the seat of the Sabah State government. Other major towns in Sabah include Sandakan and Tawau. The 2020 census recorded a population of 3,418,785 in the state. It has an equatorial climate with tropical rainforests, abundant with animal and plant species. The state has long mountain ranges on the west side which forms part of the Crocker Range National Park. Kinabatangan River, the second longest river in Malaysia runs through Sabah. The highest point of Sabah, Mount Kinabalu is also the highest point of Malaysia.
The North Borneo dispute, also known as the Sabah dispute, is the territorial dispute between Malaysia and the Philippines over much of the eastern part of the state of Sabah. Sabah was previously known as North Borneo prior to the formation of the Malaysian federation.
The Moro National Liberation Front is a political organization in the Philippines that was founded in 1972. It started as a splinter group of the Muslim Independence Movement. The MNLF was the organization most active in the Moro conflict for about two decades beginning from the 1970s.
Nur Misuari is a Moro Filipino revolutionary and politician, founder and leader of the Moro National Liberation Front.
Illegal immigration to Malaysia is the cross-border movement of people to Malaysia under conditions where official authorisation is lacking, breached, expired, fraudulent, or irregular. The cross-border movement of workers has become well-established in Southeast Asia, with Malaysia a major labour-receiving country and Indonesia and the Philippines the region's main labour-sending states. Managing cross-border migration has become an issue of increasing concern in Malaysia and its international relations.
The Moro conflict was an insurgency in the Mindanao region of the Philippines which involved multiple armed groups. A decades-long peace process has resulted in various peace deals have been signed between the Philippine government and two major armed groups, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), but other smaller armed groups continue to exist. In 2017, the peace council settled around 138 clan conflicts.
The Filipino Malaysians consists of people of full or partial Filipino descent who were born in or immigrated to Malaysia. Filipinos in Malaysia comprise migrants and residents from the Philippines and their descendants living in Malaysia. Because of the short distance between the two nations, many Filipinos mainly from Mindanao have migrated to the Malaysian state of Sabah to escape from the conflict, poverty and in search for better lives. About 325,089 Filipinos live in Malaysia. Many of them are illegal residents while there are a smaller number of migrant workers and fewer permanent residents.
Malaysia–Philippines relations refers to the bilateral relations between Malaysia and the Philippines. The Philippines has an embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and Malaysia has an embassy in Manila and a consulate general in Davao City. The people of the two neighbouring countries have a long history of cultural and political relations.
Anti-Filipino sentiment refers to the general dislike or hatred towards the Philippines, Filipinos or Filipino culture. This can come in the form of direct slurs or persecution, in the form of connoted microaggressions, or depictions of the Philippines or the Filipino people as being inferior in some form psychologically, culturally or physically.
The 2013 Lahad Datu standoff, also known as the Lahad Datu incursion or Operation Daulat, was a military conflict in Lahad Datu, Malaysia. The conflict began on 11 February, when 235 militants arrived in Lahad Datu by boat, and ended on 24 March. The militants, self proclaimed as "Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo", were sent by a claimant to the throne of the Sultanate of Sulu.
The Libya–Philippines relations refers to the bilateral relationship between Libya and the Republic of the Philippines. Libya has an embassy in Manila and the Philippines has an embassy in Tripoli.
The Bangsamoro Republik, officially the United Federated States of Bangsamoro Republik (UFSBR), was a short-lived, self-proclaimed, unrecognized breakaway state in the Philippines. Nur Misuari, chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front, issued the Proclamation of Bangsamoro Independence on July 27, 2013 in Talipao, Sulu and declared the capital of Bangsamoro to be Davao City.
The Zamboanga City crisis or Zamboanga Siege was an armed conflict in Zamboanga City, Philippines between the government forces of the Philippines and Moro rebels from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that began on September 9, 2013 and ended twenty days later on September 28. The conflict began when MNLF rebels, under the command of Nur Misuari, attempted to occupy several coastal communities in Zamboanga City in protest of the Philippine government's failure to implement the 1996 final peace agreement with the MNLF.
The Bangsamoro are a majority-Muslim ethnic group occupying a range of territories across the southern portions of the Republic of the Philippines. On three occasions, a short-lived and unrecognized Bangsamoro state independent of the Philippines has been formally declared by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). The first declaration was issued in 1974, amid the Moro conflict. Bangsamoro Land would be declared in 2012. In 2013, the United Federated States of Bangsamoro Republik was declared.
The cross border attacks in Sabah are a series of cross border terrorist attacks perpetrated by Moro pirates from Mindanao, Philippines, in the state of Sabah, Malaysia, that began even before the British colonial period. Many civilians have died or suffered during these incidents, causing an increase in anti-Filipino sentiment among the native peoples of Sabah, especially after major attacks in 1985, 2000 and 2013. The attacks were more intense during the presidential terms of Diosdado Macapagal and Ferdinand Marcos, who supported irredentist claims to include eastern Sabah as part of the Philippines territory. In addition, recent infiltration and attacks by militants as well as uncontrolled human migration from Mindanao to Sabah has led to more unease sentiments among the local residents of Sabah, with around 78% of prison inmates that were caught in the state due to involvement in criminal activities and lawlessness issues mainly originating from the southern Philippines.
The 1976 Tripoli Agreement was signed on December 23, 1976 in Tripoli, Libya by Carmelo Z. Barbero, representing the Government of the Philippines and Nur Misuari of the Moro National Liberation Front. The agreement defined autonomous administrative divisions for Muslims in the southern Philippines, the establishment of an autonomous government, judicial system for Sharia law and special security forces, and the observance of a ceasefire. The autonomous region was to have its own economic system, including an Islamic bank.
The 2001 rebellion of the Moro National Liberation Front Misuari faction against the Philippine government during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was led by Nur Misuari, the founder of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). It began on November 19, 2001, when members of a faction of the MNLF loyal to Misuari attacked a Philippine Army headquarters in Jolo, Sulu in the Philippines. The attack was meant to disrupt the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao elections scheduled for November 26 of that year, which eventually replaced Misuari as governor.
Sabah is the third most populous state in Malaysia, with a population of 3,418,785 according to the 2020 Malaysian census. It also has the highest non-citizen population, at 810,443. Although Malaysia is one of the least densely populated countries in Asia, Sabah is particularly sparsely populated. Most of the population is concentrated along coastal areas, with towns and urban centres seeing the most population growth.
Malaysia's Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai said Mr Misuari and six of his followers were arrested at 3.30 am on Saturday (1930 GMT Friday) on Jampiras island off Sabah state. Manila had ordered his arrest on charges of instigating a rebellion after the government suspended his governorship of an autonomous Muslim region in Mindanao, the ARMM. Although the Philippines has no extradition treaty with Malaysia, the authorities have already made clear that they intend to hand Mr Misuari over to the authorities in Manila as soon as possible. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had said before the arrest that, although his country had provided support to the rebel group in the past in its bid for autonomy, Mr Misuari had not used his powers correctly. "Therefore, we no longer feel responsible to provide him with any assistance," he said.