Criminalisation of Movements - Aftermath 9.11

Criminalisation of Movements - Aftermath 9.11
Organised by TNI for AEPF4
Copenhagen, Denmark, 20 September 2002

This workshop took place on Saturday 21 September, from 2pm-4pm. The theme of the workshop was an examination of new trends in the criminalisation of political dissent and migrants, both in Europe and Asia. The four speakers who participated were Youngmo Yoon of the Korean Congress of Trade Unions, Yap Swee Seng of the Asian People's Security Network and Suaram Malaysia, Arun Kundnani of Institute of Race Relations, London and Nurul Qoiriah of the Asian Migrant Centre, Hong Kong. Although the session was nominally about the effect on civil rights in the aftermath of September 11, all the participants agreed that the trends they were describing were in fact longer-term trends that the 'war on terrorism' had exacerbated. About 30 people attended the workshop, which was chaired by Gus Miclat from Initiatives for International Dialogue, Philippines.

Youngmo Yoon began the session by describing the numerous arrests over the last few years of Korean trade union leaders. The government had this year attempted to justify the arrests by invoking the need for security during the World Cup finals. But the repression of worker organising rights was being conducted with such naked brutality and lack of subtlety that Youngmo commented, it merely served to highlight a crisis of legitimacy in South Korea. Youngmo was thus optimistic that such wanton disrespect for civil society could only hasten the end of authoritarianism in Korea.

Yap Swee Seng described how the 'war against terrorism' has had a damaging impact on civil society in Malaysia, with the government's more intense application of the 'Internal Security Act'. This legislation has been presented as a part of the US-led anti-terrorism effort but has been used primarily to criminalize internal dissent. Under its stamp, numerous democratic political opponents of the government have been arrested without trial. The Act allows for 'preventive detention' of a person for an indefinite period. During the first 60 days, the detainee is denied communication with family and lawyers. The best-known political prisoner is Anwar Ibrahim, the former Deputy Prime Minister, but there are scores more held at the notorious Kamunting detention centre. Yap has been involved in campaigning for the release of Tian Chua, a long-time labour rights activist.

Arun Kundnani examined the growing clampdown on migrants and refugees across Europe, particularly after September 11. The EU has declared that the war on terrorism must also be a war on illegal immigration and, as such, a whole raft of new measures have been introduced to target migrant communities. There has also been closer collaboration of EU police forces with secret services in Algeria, Turkey and Egypt and a massive expansion of intelligence gathering and surveillance of migration, including the use of military satellites and navy patrols. Britain has introduced legal powers to detain without trial foreign nationals suspected of 'terrorism'. Linked to these attacks by the state on migrants are an increasingly xenophobic and islamophobic political culture and a rise in the influence of extreme-Right politics, as shown in Italy, Denmark, France, Netherlands and Spain.

Nurul Qoiriah presented the present situation of migrants in Asia. First of all she focussed on the mass deportation of migrant workers from Malaysia, in which a number of children and adults died. She strengthened the importance of appealing to advocates and the international community to demand that the Malaysian government stops this inhuman treatment of migrants. Besides, the Korean government, by its so-called "Improving Measures for Foreign Labour System", intends to expel about 260 000 surrendered "illegal foreign labour" by the end of March 2003. In the meantime, Korea's industrial trainee system, which commentators have labelled as a form of modern-day slavery, will be reinforced and expanded. As a whole, Asia witnesses a clear deterioration of migrants' rights, as the example of Hong Kong shows where foreign domestic workers' contracts are now even more restricted. Nurul Qoiriah called for direct action and campaigning to oppose these trends and stressed the importance of cooperation between civil society in Europe and Asia in this process. After the introductory discussions, the workshop debated the issues arising, particularly making comparisons between attacks on civil rights in Asia and Europe and the respective
experiences of migrant communities in both continents. The workshop also recommended the need for exchange of information and underlined the importance of the strengthening of civil society responses towards these new trends.