Amnesty Says Migrant Workers in Malaysia Face Abuse - NYTimes.com

Image via Wikipedia

By LIZ GOOCH

Published: March 24, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Amnesty International said in a report released on Wednesday that migrant workers faced exploitation and widespread abuse in Malaysia, and it accused the government of not doing enough to protect them.
Malaysia, a country of 28 million, relies heavily on foreign labor, with an estimated two million working legally and a million more illegal workers from countries like Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar.
More than 200 migrant workers were interviewed last July for the Amnesty report, which found that some workers were being lured to Malaysia by agents, only to find that the jobs they had been promised did not exist.
Others complained of physical, verbal and sexual abuse, saying employers held passports, forced them to work long hours and did not pay the wages promised.
Researchers spoke to migrants working in restaurants, construction sites, factories and homes. They visited three detention centers around Kuala Lumpur, where they found overcrowding and a lack of beds, access to clean water and medication.
Amnesty said that many migrants were victims of human trafficking, and that in some cases immigration officials were involved. Last year, the State Department listed Malaysia among countries not complying with minimum standards for combating trafficking.
The report also condemned caning of illegal migrants, stating that almost 35,000 migrants were caned between 2002 and 2008.
The nation’s human resources minister, S. Subramaniam, denied that foreign workers faced discrimination, telling The Associated Press that they had the same rights and protection as Malaysian workers.


Amnesty Says Migrant Workers in Malaysia Face Abuse - NYTimes.com