Public perception is that many of them are engaged in crime.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia seems to be engulfed in a climate of xenophobia towards black Africans, an opinion piece published on the New York Times yesterday claims.
Increased investment by Malaysian companies in Africa and its position as a leading education hub in Southeast Asia makes Malaysia a magnet for students and immigrants from Africa.
Yet, that has only served to escalate tensions between Malaysia and its African counterparts.
Two Nigerians were handed death sentences for drug trafficking in recent months. Others have complained of being the victim of internet scams.
“The publicity over such high-profile criminal cases involving Africans (mostly Nigerians) has helped inflame widespread prejudices,” the opinion piece says.
Africans cite many reasons for coming to Malaysia.
For the Muslims, Malaysia offers them the opportunity to practice their faith in a more modern and cosmopolitan environment. Apart from that, students claim that the degrees they secure here allow them better prospects of employment in their home countries.
Despite this, what tends to grab the headlines are cases of African criminality.
“Malaysia’s modern infrastructure, efficient banking system and reliable Internet connectivity have, according to a Reuters report, made it an “epicenter” of online schemes — with Nigerians in particular said to be using Malaysia as an operating base,” the opinion notes.
American women are apparently a major target of such scams.
Some 80% of inquiries made at the US embassy here last year were complaints of internet fraud. Two women reportedly claimed to have lost more than US$250,000.
A Nigerian NGO, the Legal Defense and Assistance Project, reportedly said that two prisons in the country hold some 132 Nigerians, some of whom are on death row.
The seemingly entrenched anti-African sentiment has been reflected in an editoral which Utusan Malaysia ran last year in which it claimed that Africans were bad for Malaysia, associating them with many serious crimes and other social ills.
That perception, the Times opinion notes, is unlikely to change anytime soon.
