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?
Through
interviews with women migrant workers who had returned to Indonesia at a Malaysian
border crossing, Bustamante outlined a "wide range" of human rights
abuses in the workplace, including psychological, physical and sexual abuse.
<P>A memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries allowing employers to take away migrants’ passports has further stripped away their freedom, he said.</P>
<P>"To
my surprise, this has been authorized by a memorandum of understanding signed
by the two governments," Bustamante told a press conference. He said the
memorandum of understanding includes a provision that explicitly authorizes employers
to take away the passports of the migrants.</P><P>"By doing that they produce
a change of situation of vulnerability for the migrants," he said. "And
this vulnerability goes together very often with serious violations of human rights,
such as women being raped, or women being beaten and migrants being whipped in
prison."</P><P>Hundreds of thousands of Indonesian migrant workers are employed
in Malaysia as cheap labourers, such as housemaids and construction workers.</P><P>Bustamante
urged Indonesia to continue to monitor the treatment of women migrant workers
by labour agents and to enforce penalties against agents who abuse workers.</P><P>He
said the Indonesian government next year would ratify a 1990 international convention
on the protection of the rights of all migrant workers.</P><P>© 2006 dpa
German Press Agency
Address: Wisma MTUC,10-5, Jalan USJ 9/5T, 47620 Subang Jaya,Selangor | Tel: 03-80242953 | Fax: 03-80243225 | Email: sgmtuc@gmail.com.com