Wao Newsletter

WAO’s work with Women in Migration

NGOs linked within the MWG Network:

1. Women’s Aid Organisation

2. The National Human Rights Society (HAKAM)

3. Labour Resource Centre (LRC)

4. Tenaganita

5. Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM)

6. Amnesty International Malaysia (AIM)

7. Penang Office for Human Development (POHD)

8. A Call to Serve (ACTS)

9. All Women’s Action Society (AWAM)

10. Malaysian Care

11. Shelter

12. KOMAS

13. ALIRAN

14. Legal Aid Centre (Kuala Lumpur)

15. Malaysian Bar Council

16. Migrant Care

17. National Office for Human Development

18. Harvest Centre.

The MWG has strong affiliations with Migrant Forum in Asia, Forum Asia, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and CARAM-Asia.

April—September 2007

Volume Q2/07

WAO’s Shelter and counselling services is open to all women living and working in Malaysia and so in due course WAO began responding to abused domestic writers trafficked women and in recent years female asylum seekers. Social workers quickly learnt to deal not only with the police and welfare departments but with Immigration, Labour Department, courts, prisons and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

From these direct services we expanded our advocacy for law and policy reform on migration issues by developing position papers and by networking with both national and regional networks.

WAO acts as a secretariat to a new network – The Migration Working Group

In March 2006, Alice Nah, a volunteer at the Human Rights Society of Malaysia (HAKAM) and an academic approached WAO to request our organisation to act as a secretariat to bring together several groups and individuals working on migration issues.

This idea was actually mooted during the UNHCR annual roundtable discussion held in January 2006. At the annual roundtable discussion

while looking at issues related to refugees, WAO raised a point that NGOs may need to form a coalition to defend the rights of migrant workers including domestic workers, trafficked women and refugees.

Furthermore, there were no comprehensive proposals or joint memorandums to reform the Immigration Act or the Migration Policy in Malaysia. So Alice Nah together with WAO initiated several meetings with NGOs and eventually formed the Migration Working Group.

About the Migration Working Group (MWG)

The Migration Working Group (MWG) is a network of Malaysian NGOs and individuals (researchers, lawyers, writers and volunteers) who work on migration issues and with migrants in Malaysia and was initiated by Alice Nah and WAO in early 2006.

The objectives of the MWG are to:

· Promote greater networking, collaboration and consultation,

· Design joint lobbying and advocacy strategies amongst Malaysian NGOs and individuals working on migration issues and with migrants, and

· Build capacity

Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO)