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 Vietnamese Hai Phong-based Cuu Long Trade Investment Company told VNA that it had provided the 19 guest workers with US$500 and contacted its Malaysian partners to send them to work in the Kedah state, 500km northeast of Kuala Lumpur capital, on Saturday.
<P>Last August, the company sent 29 Vietnamese
guest workers to Malaysia to work at a Kedah-based plant.</P><P>But only 10 of
them were provided jobs at the Kedah-based plant as earlier agreed in the labor
contracts while the rest had to seek employment at another factory in the Selangor
state, 100km southeast of Kuala Lumpur.</P><P>The unexpected change violated the
Malaysian labor code, which stipulates that any foreign worker moving from one
state to another must have authenticated passports granted by the government.</P><P>As
the Malaysian government was cracking down on dubious foreign labors at the time,
the 19 Vietnamese guest workers diverted to the Selangor state were deemed illegal
employees in the country.</P><P>Source: TTXVN – Translated by An Dien</P><P><I>Source:
http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/?catid=3&newsid=25016</I>
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