Malaysian duo speak up for Sabah’s stateless migrants

Two Malaysian women shoot a documentary about the plight of two Filipino migrant families.

PETALING JAYA: Two Malaysian women are screening a documentary they filmed on stateless Filipino migrants in Sabah, in hopes to raise awareness on their plight.

Vilashini Somiah and Azliana Aziz tell it like it is in their documentary entitled “Di Ambang: Stateless in Sabah”.

The documentary follows the lives of two Filipino migrant families that according to Azliana are “the worst of the worst to realistically portray what is ongoing in our own backyard”.

The duo’s main aim was to generate a collective effort on the part of the Malaysian government, the Philippines’ government, NGOs and civil society regarding the issue of statelessness among migrants.

Azliana said, “Local folk living around these migrant families in rural areas don’t see these guys as outsiders as they’ve grown up together, living as a community – it becomes a norm in the community.”

Disagreeing with many that the documentary was more about the infamous “Project IC” and the Lahad Datu incursion, Vilashini said, “At the end of the day the film is just a story about human connections – we connected on a human level with our subjects and I think that’s important because their stories don’t get told much.”

Vilashini also felt the duo had to speak up for the stateless migrants for the simple reason that “the numbers are growing and nothing is being done”.

Vilashini and Azliana explained that the documentary was “not for or against anything, just providing information about a very real issue that has thus far gone unnoticed”.

Taking six months to shoot, the 50-minute documentary will be screened today at 6:30pm in the KOMAS Freedom Film Festival 2014 at the PJ Live Arts in Jaya One.