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?
Jorge Bustamante, wrapping up a weeklong trip to
Indonesia that included interviews with families at a Malaysia border crossing,
also said women recruited as domestic workers were "virtually sold to their
employers."
<P>A memorandum of understanding between the two Southeast
Asian nations allows employers to take away migrants’ passports, he said, further
stripping away their freedom.</P><P>"A chain of vulnerability for migrants
leads to very serious violations of human rights such as women being beaten and
raped and migrants being whipped in prison," he told reporters in Jakarta.</P><P>Indonesia,
the world’s fourth most populous nation with 220 million people, is still recovering
from the 1997 Asian economic crisis and many people go abroad in search of a better
life, especially women and children.</P><P>Bustamante said more than a million
Indonesian workers faced the risk of rights abuses in Malaysia, half of them illegal
workers.</P><P>"The international community is not interested because there
is true demand for irregular (illegal) migrants," said Bustamante, adding
that half those going to Malaysia are domestic workers, but that a large number
are plantations laborers.</P><P>The Indonesian government said it would ratify
a 1990 international convention protecting the rights of migrants in 2007, Bustamante
said.</P><P>© 2006 The Associated Press
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