Police Told to Find 50

Police Told to Find 50,000 Missing Chinese Tourists

Overstayers Marry Malaysians, Work in the Sex Industry or Leave on Fake Passports

The government has ordered police and immigration authorities to track down and arrest an estimated 50,000 Chinese nationals who entered the country this year as tourists but have since disappeared.

No record could be found of their departure, according to Immigration Department figures.

"Given the large numbers it's important they are located ? and overstayers should be charged in court," Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said, responding to a newspaper report yesterday that the mainlanders could have blended in with the local Chinese population. About 35 per cent of Malaysia's 27 million people are descendants of 19th century Chinese tin miners.

"We cannot allow these things to go on and close one eye," Mr. Abdullah said.

But he urged the authorities to go easy on any genuine Chinese tourists.

An Immigration Department spokesman said the missing Chinese could be working illegally in Malaysia or could have left for third countries on forged passports.

"We need to know exactly where they are," he said.

Human rights activists who have closer ties with migrant workers said some of the missing Chinese were young women who had become mistresses, or "noon brides", to older Chinese businessmen and were holed up in apartments across the country.

"They are called noon brides because their 'husbands' only visit them in the afternoon before returning home to their own families," said Agile Fernandez, who is the programme co-ordinator with Tenaganita, a human rights organization that offers assistance to migrant workers.

"Others have left on forged passports to Britain, Canada and the US," she said, adding that an equal number were probably sex workers.

"Some others are employed in Chinese restaurants, pubs, small factories and in traditional Chinese medicine shops. A minority are door-to-door petty traders and beggars.

"They live at great risk and at the mercy of trafficking syndicates. We revealed this problem in 2003 but nobody bothered. It has reached alarming proportions now."

The New Straits Times reported yesterday that based on the Immigration Department's entry and exit figures, about 50,000 Chinese nationals were unaccounted for this year up until September.

A total of 180,000 went missing last year, 175,000 in 2003 and 177,000 in 2002.

It was the first time these figures had been released, and the apparent decline was attributed to a slide in Chinese visitors.

The number of Chinese sex workers arrested in Malaysia has jumped dramatically, from just 190 in 2000 to 4,900 in the first nine months of this year.

Human rights lawyer Amir Hamzah said many overstayers were victims of trafficking syndicates. "The syndicates feed the various levels of the sex industry. Although some women are voluntary, many are trafficked," said Mr Amir, who has defended numerous Chinese overstayers in court.

"It is a global problem. As a consumer and as a transit centre, Malaysia is a key player."

Copyright 2005 South China Morning Post Ltd.