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 raid at a hostel south of the capital early last morning was conducted
by RELA, a task force that assists security officials in nabbing illegal immigrants
in Malaysia.
<p>All foreigners arrested were workers of a factory in the country’s western
Selangor state.</p>
<p>"This is our biggest swoop so far. We were tipped off by members of the
public. The illegals are from Indonesia, India, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal and
Cambodia," Selangor’s RELA director, Khairy Mohamad Alwee, was quoted in
the ‘Star.'</p>
<p>He told the daily, "We are compiling their particulars. Most of them do
not have proper travel documents.</p>
<p>After this, we will send them to immigration depots all over the country because
the ones in Selangor are already overcrowded with illegal immigrants."</p>
<p>Malaysia had more than a year ago launched an operation of periodic roundups
to flush out illegal immigrants, then estimated to be around 800,000.</p>
<p>The Southeast Asian country is of the largest importers of foreign labour in
Asia and employs around 2.6 million foreign workers, both legal and illegal
out of its 10.5 million workforce, officials said.
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