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?
Feeding on the desperation of vast numbers of people who eke out a precarious
living against the odds, unscrupulous labour agents entice them to stake all
their possessions on a chance to make a fresh start abroad. Every day, unfortunately,
another planeload of inbound migrants abandoned by their shady recruiters awaken
to find that they were better off coping with their familiar destitute lives.
In the past week, several hundreds of immigrants holed up at the KL International
Airport have discovered the crushing truth that the pot of gold they had hoped
to discover here is not theirs to have.</p>
<p>Government-to-government agreements on labour migration have not been able
to stem this human flood that sweeps along an endless flow of people who are
willing to leave their fate in their recruiting agents’ hands. Official
channels in labour exporting countries must take some of the blame for this
tragedy, by failing to provide a basic level of protection to their citizens
from devious operators who are responsible for such devastating fraud.</p>
<p>The recurring reports of migrant workers who remain unpaid by their employers,
shunted from one workplace to another, left without food and shelter, and various
other unthinkable atrocities besides, remind us that our society has a great
deal of maturing to do as a nation that respects its workers’ basic human
rights.</p>
<p>They also point to the ineffectiveness of our laws and regulatory machinery
to safeguard these workers from such shocking exploitation and abuse. The bare
truth is that until the Immigration Act 1957, Employment (Restriction) Act 1968,
Private Employment Agents Act and related laws and labour policies are translated
into functioning safeguards against human trafficking, we cannot claim to protect
the human resources on which the nation’s prosperity is so dependent.<br>
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<i>Source: http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=19435</i>
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