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?
For the exploding firecrackers were not part of a festive celebration but a
warning from their lookouts that the authorities were nearby.
<p>Under the cover of darkness, the illegal workers scrambled to the undergrowth
and hid in the shadows of rubber trees to evade the raiding party comprising
Rela officers.</p>
<p>The officers, who had also heard the warning, made their way towards the sound.</p>
<p>As luck would have it, a few of the workers ran into some officers in the dark.
The officers tried to grab hold of two of them but they managed to struggle
free.</p>
<p>Other Rela officers caught nine Indonesians who were hiding among the rubber
trees during the 2am raid at Felda Sungai Behrang, a 5,000ha rubber estate.</p>
<p>The raid was part of a weekend operation to weed out inhabitants of the Desa
Madura illegal settlement.</p>
<p>It was the second major raid conducted by the authorities. The first, carried
out last month, was unsuccessful.</p>
<p>Although hampered by intermittent rain on Sunday night, the team detected the
illegals’ hideout spread out in seven clusters in the estate.</p>
<p>State Rela director Kol Mohd Hariri Abu Hassan, who led the team of 100 men,
said most of the inhabitants had fled by the time officers reached the settlement.</p>
<p>Of the nine who were caught, two were women. They were from Madura and four
had expired working permits, while the rest did not have any documents.</p>
<p>They claimed that they had been working as rubber tappers and their passports
were with their employer.</p>
<p>Hariri said the workers were allowed to use their mobile phones to call their
employer, but no one turned up to verify their claims.</p>
<p>The foreign workers have been sent to the Juru detention camp near Prai, Penang.</p>
<p>Rela and Immigration officials believed that there could have been between
800 and 1,000 foreigners living in the settlement.</p>
<p>They are believed to have been employed as tappers by the villagers. The settlement
is said to have been set up three years ago.</p>
<p>According to Felda settlers, the settlement has observation towers and sentry
posts. There is also water supply, and a generator for electricity.</p>
<p>Many of the workers have mobile phones and they also communicate through walkie-talkies.</p>
<p>It takes about four hours on foot and two hours by four-wheel-drive to reach
the remote settlement from the nearest town of Ulu Slim, which is about 45 minutes
drive from here
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