Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
The company, based in Klang with eight factories there and one in Ipoh, also
has 353 foreign workers with no permits and another 72 without passports.</p>
<p>Immigration enforcement director Datuk Ishak Mohamed said the number of illegal
foreign workers was surprisingly large for such a big firm, which was a top
supplier of rubber gloves worldwide.</p>
<p>Ishak and four of his officers went to one of the company’s factories
in Klang yesterday based on a tip-off.</p>
<p>The company’s records revealed that of the 8,000 staff employed at all
its factories, about 4,000 were foreigners.</p>
<p>They also showed that the 2,071 foreign workers, whose permits were not renewed,
had documents which expired in March last year.</p>
<p>"The managers gave the excuse that they forgot or there were too many
but we don’t buy that. It’s inexcusable when it involves 2,000 foreign
workers," said Ishak.</p>
<p>Only the managing director and the legal manager were detained for investigations.</p>
<p>Ishak said Immigration would not arrest the foreign workers so as not to jeopardise
the company’s production.</p>
<p>However, the employers will be asked to pay a compound of RM2,000 for every
worker who overstayed.
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