A spokesman for Human Rights Watch (HRW) called it a “truly harebrained idea” and said senior minister for security Ismail Sabri Yaakob should be “absolutely ashamed of himself” for giving it voice.
Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy director for Asia, told FMT he regarded Ismail as “the poster boy for the xenophobic, discriminatory and rights abusing Covid-19 response in Malaysia”.
Adrian Pereira, executive director of the North-South Initiative, called Ismail’s statement “very dangerous” and said it raised questions about the ability of the National Security Council (NSC) to handle the country’s biggest-ever health crisis.
He said NSC members with no competence in managing the pandemic should resign.
John Quinley of Fortify Rights urged the government to show awareness that Covid-19 does not differentiate between citizens and non-citizens and to refrain from making policies that discriminate against refugees and migrant workers.
M Ramachelvam, co-chairman of the Bar Council’s Migrants, Refugees and Immigration Affairs Committee, questioned the legality of such a policy.
He said management committees would be violating Article 13 of the Federal Constitution if they were to compel owners or tenants to get screened for Covid-19 before giving them access to their residences.
Ismail acknowledged yesterday that the NSC did not have a policy allowing mandatory swab tests for those wanting to enter a condominium or residential area, but he said the government would not stop the managements of such premises from enforcing such rules on foreign nationals in order to “maintain the safety of the residents in the area”.
Robertson, recalling a statement Ismail made last year, accused him of being the person responsible for sowing distrust between migrants and Malaysian authorities and thereby undermining the nation’s Covid-19 response.
“No one should forget that he’s the one who lied to migrant workers in KL last May that authorities would not arrest them,” he said.
Pereira told FMT he was informed last week that a few refugee families had been locked in their apartments in Kuala Lumpur because they were suspected to be Covid-19 positive.
He said the apartment’s management told security guards to monitor the group and later forced them to get tested.
“This was on pure suspicion. When they went to the doctor, he said the test wasn’t necessary as they had no symptoms.
Pereira said the rule was unreasonable considering the cost of a swab test, which can run to RM300.
He complained that this had added to the suffering of migrant workers and refugees, whom he said had already been among the most affected by the pandemic due to income loss and the lack of an effective safety net.
The affected families are said to have lodged a police report.