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Illegal immigrants in Malaysia lead difficult lives
It is a struggle for Myanmar national Aung Aung, 44, even to pay for a single meal a day after he was dismissed from work
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It is a struggle for Myanmar national Aung Aung, 44, even to pay for a single meal a day after he was dismissed from work.
The former machine operator from Yangon said he could not re-register himself for a work permit after it expired in March.
'I am worried that I will be deported. We are not looking for trouble in Malaysia. All we want is a job so that we could feed our families back home,' he said on Sunday.
Aung, who earned about 50 ringgit (US$15.16) per day, said he had paid some 5,000 ringgit ($1,515) to agents to renew his work permit, but there was no response from them.
His countryman Aye Nyie Aung, 33, said his work permit would expire soon.
'Now, I am unemployed, and I have little money to renew my permit,' he added.
Suherman, 34, an Indonesian who was apprehended for not having proper documents, claimed that his boss had tricked him into paying for a permit, but did not give him one.
'I gave him 3,000 ringgit ($909) and I'm very angry,' he said during a raid in Dengkil at 3am on Sunday.
When asked why he did not seek assistance under the 6P programme, Suherman said he was afraid to do so.
'I came into the country illegally.'
In another raid at a squatter house in Bukit Raja, Klang, Indonesian Faizatul Abror, who is in her 20s, had earlier obtained for an extension on her permit after she read news about the 6P programme.
'I've been working here for five years. If I'm going to continue working here, I should have all the right papers,' she added.
In Johor Baru, Bangladeshi national Mohd Azad Hossain is afraid that he would be detained despite having registered for the 6P programme two years ago.
The 35-year-old, who came to Malaysia in 1995, claimed that another foreigner who was working in Kuala Lumpur had used his personal details to register for the programme.
'I registered myself on 5 Aug 2011,' he explained. 'But when I wanted to update my information with the Immigration Department last year, I found that someone else had used my details to register as a legal worker.'
