A looming election join me Steve Clemons in conversation with leading voices on the bottom line your weekly take on u. S. Politics and society on aljazeera. As malaysian nationals to contain the coded 19 barks coulthard she said been carrying out military style operations across the capital while im told. In the name of Public Health and safety theyve rounded up illegal Foreign Workers. Oh when you look at these riots you cant help but think is this the practical reality of dealing with a pandemic or is it racism. We have treating them like animals this is not the way to treat a Migrant Worker hes a little weak. Human. But it out there living it up. With all but i didnt need to go to get that kind of my so. When i went to east investigates why so many foreigners of being locked up in malaysia just locked down. Who are whom pools migrant neighborhoods around to see which any identified as areas with high infection rights have been locked in behind bob wire and barricades. This is part of malaysias response to coded 19 across the city people are being taken from their homes fingerprinted tested for the disease and shipped to valid documents those without them swiftly. I can. Certainly shut. Your eyes of whats going on. Were not allowed inside they spend stuff area. But phone footage from local residents gives us a glimpse inside the crackdown. Shortly after one right i speak with true migrants from bangladesh. Cant debates about gets out of this any one of them tells me hes afraid to leave his apartment because he doesnt have a valid work permit he managed to avoid arrest by hiding weve been trying to get witness testimony from paypal but as you can say theres police there we conquered through the wire. I got my i day look this is my id on from the press yes this is an area ok and it is but but were within our rights to report from here. But he is it off look at these. To avoid your thors easy we make another Migrant Worker caught up in the raids at an underground compound. Fearing reprisals from malaysias government the pakistani man only agrees to speak with us anonymously he was arrested with his wife and 2 children there just shouting on us just said dont just get lost keep quiet and be silent we have no words to say and we dont have a viper ask any question tongued. The man was a policeman in pakistan and says the malaysian authorities were asked klein come up often are very angry there and they keep the mobile and they putting on the head like this like this. He says his whole family including his son and daughter but handcuffed and chained together with other children and the elderly under the hot sun they were only relates to hours later after both orestes verified their documents my daughter still is scared she is talking nothing. She said maybe they come again even we have a village documentation they are not respecting us as a woman i learn here we have up for near have a value just like a dog on. Malaysias economy depends on 2200000. 00 Migrant Workers but its estimated another 4000000. 00 i here illegally taking the dirty dangerous jobs few locals months. They often traffic but i did seize exploited and trapped them in a sign. Depps. Soon after the penn dimmick was declared malaysias defense minister ismail somebody called off with the amnesty so they would come forward and be tested for the bar and they did it up for document but there were none rekha at that because the focus. But of. Course the 19. Surprised them will get by by living. At it. Youre going to definitely. Malaysias migrants say that promise now feels like a brutal betrayal. Right one could be a lived in shout heres a district known for its bazaars and curry house its the bangladeshi migrant shows me footage of what happened after the area was locked down behind razor wire right hon says when he heard a knock on his apartment door he thought it was government workers coming to test the code 19 or deliver. Instead over the next few days almost 600 residents were rounded up pushing trucks and taken away make a truck for us to make good food they give medication all due to give. So no one expecting there are going to the people theyre not. Theyre not creamy no. Theyre just undocumented. Reinhard has a valid work but his friends visa had expired 3 doorway was swiftly taken away by immigration officials he also has been arrested in this time it was not his fault his companion ever he knew his be so. You know i dont i dont buy musician and on the Police Station i cry in the gate please let me meet my friends. Down the road rihanna and i mate for hard charging another bangladeshi detained in the raids hes been working in malaysia for over 20 years 1st in construction and hotels then he started his own business selling fabric. But his visa expired during the lock down when it was impossible to renew it but it didnt come up in the budget. It was alluding to the. Poor hard says if the all forces i aim is to contain the bars cramming people together in immigration trucks is counterproductive. But didnt. Know that it didnt look that in the last time i was there like a lot of us from the bottom to the detriment of the way our struggle. So hard has since discovered that 3 people from the right and building have tested positive the courage of don t. He fears they could have infected him and many others. Have not especially in the. Activity will diminish even when have to do this. For hard story makes right hon if hes friends help. He hasnt heard from ray doing since his arrest. Today rihanna is meetings to meet that hes not a human rights lawyer who specializes in helping Migrant Workers so when did he become undocumented if you settled last year this company. Okies company go bankrupt then boss old saw hiding his visitor and he knew. He had to loan money everything so he demanded when did ok bt attempt to go to the Labor Department to file a case against his employer. Mr pierce the people like them here labor here how do you. Think we dont know you that anyway just down to meet my opinion is that anyway so there is no visitation to any of the. Detention center this is not only for foreign nationals even the lawyers can point to the Detention Centers to see the yeah. Its all closed for now. Theres little he can do to hold. It right hon drives to the Detention Center anyway hoping to at least catch a glimpse of his friend. He can. To see if hes ok because detainees arent allowed phones when they come here i become emotional ice is unbearable for me i cannot meet him i dont know is eating or not i going to give him the food im very much worried about him ryan came to malaysia 6 years ago to study and now works in marketing he says he loves his job and living here but this crackdown has changed the way raihan sees the nation and made him think about leaving this is a total a clear act of racism doesnt think here act of humility people so the so i feel the scale of the future of the migrant people i dont think that the people will keep to trust again for the government because they were afraid. Detention centers have now become hot spots because at 19 with more than 700 reported cases rights advocates say the recent influx of migrants into the already crowded facilities has created perfect conditions for the virus to spread but malaysias defense minister rejects the criticism that are going to record them by going to the. Window rejected to set the record that he got the. Only state media were allowed into Government Press conferences. Several requests to interview the same new minister foreign minister and his deputies who declined. Lyin rekha that that the state the breakthrough but the. Benbrika to death with them but i believe you gotta get that i know my sausage or her hair on any book and at that get the baby some by the time assume were good we begin america didnt left with pretty. Strong wind Health Workers say the raids a creating fear and mistrust amongst vulnerable populations now you know hard to contain the spread of coronavirus. The 3rd temple along the border. At this Health Clinic foreigners queue to be tested for Covert Military but the line used to be much longer. But. Since the raids began theres been less demand for free testing they need be apprehensive about coming forward because. Of the possibility of them being exposed and then the possibility of perhaps being apprehended by the authorities for being unbecoming to. Dr ahmed faisal put downs is the president of mercy malaysia which runs these Health Programs for migrants and refugees there definitely would be extra pressure now for those who are undocumented pleasure on them. To decide whether they should come out for testing or not to that micro job harder. Well it makes our job bit more complicated i will say if there is someone or a group of people who are there not to be positive later and we miss them and then big on 3 fact others and then and then create another cluster or 2 which which then will create further problems. Malaysias coded 19 response has successfully contained the initial spread of the virus but dr put downs says foreigners have been unfairly blamed in the crisis one of the impacts of it maintain it brings out the best in us in any given time front like work theres a sense that people giving to charity. On the other hand has brought out also as you know racism is not accepted this year and they take the option of your boss to them with social media especially to take out their. Prejudices. And racism on very vulnerable people. Quantum pools biggest whole sell food market operates from Early Morning to like knots but it could be 19 outbreak brooke tried to an abrupt hoax here for several days. Now because this is back with one big change margarets few long kept things market stalls money can no longer work you. Must i mean. Get them but. You had to get in the god use me of a dynasty me till i got to need it and im winning the fact that i never let anyone tell you that theyre to live and i got you know willie. You got. Mohamed in sunny been young runs the local Traders Association he says hiring only locals who make market site for. That make the that i am like that into a company cost with that kind of back let me thank god that with. The table. And everything in it would. Make me. Think i might have gotten them fired up. As anything on any. Kind of t. V. If. I want to. I did i want to. I got to know that my mind how is this a fair program or not but programming because. Its an ongoing ayyad pool a coal mine. Until im going to become one i want to be have 20 years you i think that i know up young youve got the thing ive got yeah yeah i mean look at they have a coal mine legislation would finessing until. Muhammad ran a recruitment drive to replace the Foreign Workers with locals 500. 00 malaysians applied for just 60 positions. This man was one of the successful applicants oh do you. Think. That you. Would think you. Could put them up but not everyone is happy. Stallholders complained that they new employees cant handle the long hours and manual labor involved some whove already quit leaving them understand. That. And so more at the heart of what the need is here with me now more say well tell you. What theyve got. To hide and that will. Be what conditioning. The removal of Foreign Workers from the markers and from their neighborhoods ignatian social media. Photos and videos of the riots which she had online. And she immigration facebook groups have been telling a legal margarets to go. Mohamed thinks malaysia should not allow so many Foreign Workers. In the lockdown began. Because. Foreigners were the 1st to be stood down from construction sites shops office blocks and factories. To keep the. Move to 4 years ago. So she could provide for her family. But. She found a cleaning job at a restaurant but her employer didnt want to apply and pay for a visa on her behalf. I mean. Before the pandemic she was. Moving on. To the. With the mega savings depleted rahima is now one of the many thousands of migrants starving across the city all the people in her housing block are also out of work she lives in this cramped space with 9 other. So. Yes. Some days 6 month old baby goes hungry we took a he took on how the having a monkey this was such cindy going to buy our own mom. Maybe not the item number twos. Keep the balloon buy out the. Monkey. On the park in the kitchen and i must upon the city keep that he saw. What it sounded on less than that but believe me my lady saw. Us market lucky that it up limited it down. To the heat of the sun because you me. But this malaysian is determined to help the desperate like regime of. Our wrongs the n. G. O. S margaret care at a supermarket hes working trucks to the brim with rice eggs and cooking oil. All the gentle creation all he wanted. Its a difficult logistical operation but of. Our existing deliveries across the city feeding margaret workers who lost their jobs during the crisis call a human being. Desperate for food they are not asking for more so for the. Mr so why 1st. This is one of 8 deliveries the team will make today more than 200 migrants who now get to eat ive got that camera down for the film but the fact that. When people are desperate they can help clean up all of the social distancing. Portion of what was taken out by the other but that is what matter. After studying in indonesia and seeing its workers exploited in other countries alexander the n. G. O. S with fellow activists in 2003. They have never been busier receive some donation from somebody. Of course of a tornado to fund come from my personal saving. So youre doing this out of the goodwill of your own. Alex does his best to allocate aid to the most needy today hes visiting indonesian migrant when the supporter she lives at a squatter settlement near the river. Windy has a work permit but lost her job as a cleaner at a car showroom during the pandemic. When work dried up here the nepalese husband returned home to try and earn money so now its just wendy and her son left in kuala lumpur barely surviving on fish their neighbors catch in the nearby pollution river when these communities desperately needs help. Oh man oh man you know that i dont want the marriage going on i cant say im going to battle. That. Someone you know it took a bit of. It out just to keep it actually to be but be happy you know. The age hes given. Will last for 2 months but the future is uncertain when he doesnt know when she could work again and hes contemplating leaving malaysia ive got my number to 35. Just exactly where she is if you dont have. To do this behind you that she did that. With travel restrictions in place shes stuck for now like many moderates shell have to wait it out. I find. That to keep them high notes little. Bit of fact. As demand for food increases team work around the clock. As high as 18 hours a day and sometimes we just sleep wake up in front of a computer you have. 2300. 2. 135. 00 baby receiving it so. Is that the most stressful. Deli meat that Human Resources we have many of the a budding out. Its training but alex says malaysia is moderate workers whove helped build this country instead of exploiting them and locking them up or ignoring their plight he wants malaysians to recognise them as a vital part of the community. And contribute to economy. Among. What i would say said a lot of people like to pinpointing that government should be responsive to the employer should be responsive the way i look at it he said he. Has to be accountable. We are leaving in the coming days. Malaysia is now preparing to deport thousands of undocumented workers arrested in the rights. But critics say this crackdown ignores some of the root causes driving the spread of the virus poverty and exploitation. The government is banning employers from hiring Migrant Workers until the end of the year. In a nation that struggles with rights relations it is foreigners who are paying the price in the pandemic. They signed up for a luxury cruise but some would never come ha. Ha ha ha solo when i went to investigate for new zealands deadly boko eruption on al jazeera. Short films of hope. And inspiration. A series of short puzzle stories that highlight the human triumph against the odds. Aljazeera selects. We understand the differences and similarities have cultures across the left. Side no matter what a new seeks out is iraq will bring you the news and current fast that matter to you. Aljazeera. This is al jazeera. Joe how everyone im Kemal Santa Maria and this is the news hour from aljazeera a murder trial is underway in istanbul for 28. 00 saudis suspects charged in their absence with killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi also in the news england outlines plans to lift the 14 day quarantine for visitors from more than 50 countries will have a live report from Heathrow Airport also a warning from the United Nations that beijings new security law for hong kong could be used to punish active