Caritas addresses the issues around migration directly. It works to advise and protect all migrants – men, women and children – to prevent trafficking and abuse. Caritas advocates for the rights of domestic workers – who are often migrants – and for proper legal protection for all people who move to find work and security.
Malaysia’s resources and strategic location have made our country a major destination and a transit country for trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants, with migrants often falling prey to unscrupulous recruiters which leaves them stranded and undocumented.
“I was a stranger and you took me in; naked and you clothed me.”
Migrant labourers on farms or construction sites may be overworked and underpaid; domestic workers may face physical and sexual abuse, and child migrants may be kept out of school and taken advantage of. The risks facing migrants are many.
Some are tricked by people they trust. They are sold into slavery or prostitution or fall prey to organised criminal gangs. Migrants can also be abused by law enforcement authorities and employment agencies.
Caritas supports migrants, upholds their rights, and helps them live in dignity. It advocates for better legislation to protect them.
Through our parish, Caritas provides medical, shelters, legal help and job training for migrants. Caritas ensures that migrants are aware of the risks before they leave home and know how to get help afterwards.
Our faith in Jesus calls us to respond to the poor in a special way. Before we address questions of legality, we must see immigrants—people who are strangers to us in many ways, who may not speak our language; who bring with them very little in terms of wealth beyond a desire to work—as people made in God’s image, just like us. However we respond, our policies must protect their human dignity.
The Church teaches that people have a fundamental right to economic, political, and social opportunities in their homelands. But when people cannot find employment in their home countries and cannot support themselves and their families, they have a right to find work elsewhere to survive. Sovereign nations have the right to control their borders, but wealthy nations that are better able to protect and feed their residents are obligated to accommodate migration flows. In addition, those who flee violence and persecution should find special protection from the global community.
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Caritas is the charitable arm of the Roman Catholic Church. It is to spearhead the church’s social mission, to respond to humanitarian crisis, promote integral human development and advocate on the causes of poverty and violence.
Caritas Penang comes under the jurisdiction of The Titular Roman Catholic Bishop of Penang.
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