illegal immigration to Malaysia

Illegal immigration to Malaysia is the cross-border movement of people to Malaysia under conditions where official authorisation is lacking, breached, expired, fraudulent, or irregular. The cross-border movement of workers has become well-established in Southeast Asia, with Malaysia a major labour-receiving country and Indonesia and the Philippines the region's main labour-sending states. Managing cross-border migration (labour, refugee and human trafficking) has become an issue of increasing concern in Malaysia and its international relations. Definitions The term "illegal", when applied to "migration" and "migrant", has been replaced in recent years by "irregular" and "undocumented" on the grounds that "illegal" is inaccurate, degrading, and prejudicial. Key institutions have adopted the new terms: the UN General Assembly (1975), the International Labour Organization (2004), the European Parliament (2009), and the Associated Press (2013) and other US news agencies. The new terms are rarely used in official and academic discourse in Malaysia, where the popular term is "illegal immigrant". The term "illegals", elsewhere perceived as outdated and pejorative, is regularly used in Malaysian media. The terminology is also obscure because Malaysian law (Immigration Act 1959/63) does not distinguish between undocumented economic migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and trafficked people; all are designated as illegal immigrants.