Pardesi.. Pardesi.. Kiu aya.... Ghar jao....Ghar jao... Hi.. Assalamualaikum.. I am back.. so many things to be done.. so...like it or not, I have to abandon writing for almost 2 months. While doing my things, I am still able to send back 5 Bangladeshi Bhai back to their country. I cannot understand why must they risk their lives and come to Malaysia without actually knowing what they will face here. They simply (stupidly) listen to the unscrupulous agents and started building castles in the air. They spend whatever they have, rent their land to neighbours, sell their goru (cow) and do whatever they could to be able to realize their dreams of coming to Malaysia. First by getting their passports done, that too by using agent. Something that costs only 100 ringgit in Malaysia but in Bangladesh it will cost them at least 1500 ringgit (times 18 taka) so approximately 27,000 taka. A month or two later, they will get their passports and then will pass it to another agent to get the visa for either student or tourist. That task will cost them about 5000 ringgit or 90,000 taka or even higher. With that kind of rate, definitely they have to sacrifice what ever their family owns. Everyone is willing to chip in as they are also desperate to have someone that could be the breadwinner for the family for 5 to 10 years to come, if that fellow is lucky enough not to be caught by the Malaysian immigration. When the day comes, off he flies to Malaysia with brand new shirt, pants and shoes.
They did not realize what they have left behind in Bangladesh. They left their spouses and kids, parents, simple food that they love.. elis mas.. their playground .. the rice field.. mustard field... palang shark.. all for the money they thought they could bring back....
Never in their wildest dream that they will be caught by the immigration and will be deported. It would be lucky if they are able to work and managed to get back all the money that they had spent in order to get to Malaysia, what if they are caught after they just arrived in Malaysia for about a year or so. I believed with that kind of duration, they are still struggling to get a stable income and certainly have not able to get the initial money that they had used or spent to come to Malaysia... Bidesh... kichu nai bhai...
If they are caught, the whole family will be doomed. That is how it always happen. When it happens, sometimes I would be playing my small role. There are some people telling me to set an organization or NGO so that i can increase the number of people that I could help. I don't know, with my own job still hanging here and there...LOL... Do you want to know what is actually my role?
Look at the picture down there. It was like that.. once upon a time, though now it's getting better, still we can't expect much of rapid development or changes, do we... What do you expect? Three Star Hotel? Of course nope.. nope.. nope...!!! I would say every country will do that, I mean , if the immigration depots are so comfortable, then every illegal immigrant will find excuses to be able to stay at the depot for some time as it is so comfortable to live in.
However, in the real condition, the moment they were caught, there is no way that they will feel comfortable. You couldn't blame the immigration officers as they are actually just doing their work.As for the people who had been detained, words has traveled to their family and the whole family will started crying. As for you. who are being detained in the depot, times move painstakingly slow. You will be remanded at least for a week before the immigration court decides as to deport you or will send you to be jailed (even worse) for a certain amount of time.If you are to be deported, you will be send to the immigration depot all over Malaysia depending on the vacancy.. I would say, as the number of illegal immigrants that are being detained has increase along with the number of operations that are being done by the immigration. If you are lucky enough, you will be put into the depot near to the area where you had been detained.
However, you are still unlucky if nobody knows that you are being detained. If you have friends that noticed that you have been detained and informed that to your family, then you still have hope to get back to your country and most importantly to your family. Why... because here is Malaysia and not Saudi which has money to send you back overnight. With thousands of illegal immigrants in the depot, don't expect to be sent easily and getting free ticket is not an option. Maybe when there is a Sultan's of a state Birthday celebration, His Royal Highness will kindly support a few tickets, how about the rest? So, the best and only solution is getting the money back from your family to fly you back to your own country.
As usual, here comes again the agent (Benggoli are so damn good at becoming agents).Unfortunately these agents are not all genuine. Some just take the money and ..poof.. gone. Some might be genuine but the fees that they charge... wow, they are leeches man.. they don't care that their deshi bhai is having a hard time finding money to get back to their motherland.
While the agents are working outside, you will just have to bear the circumstances.Sleeping and eating (could you?). Sounds easy than it really is. If the depot is too crowded, then you would be living miserably. Waiting for miracles.
This is where and when I will come into the picture... Someone, normally a friend of the illegal immigrant could have heard about me, it is like an advertisement from mouth to mouth.. and it travels fast, even I could not fathom it... Suddenly I realized that I had helped sending back almost 50 them and every time I faced different experience which indirectly opened my eyes to see things from different perspectives and I do appreciate it. That... has teach me to appreciate life and have respect to all human kinds, no matter if they are illegal immigrants. We created the border, God never has...
As God say, if we help to ease someone's burden, in shaa allah, he will do that unto us. That's what I believe and with that I travel during my holidays to help sending back these unlucky immigrants. I will talk to the family, arrange a meeting with the immigrants in the depot, if they need extra food I will buy it from the canteen at the depot (stock them with ration) while I go back and arrange for their out pass to be completed. This is not an easy task as it involves Bangladesh Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
