Search the Internet          Tips

Indian job racket victims stranded in Malaysia

Lured by promises of well-paid jobs in Malaysia, some 150 stranded Indians are now depending on human rights organisations, churches and mosques for food and shelter after paying agents up to Rs 1,50,000 each for a better life abroad.

The poor, illiterate villagers, from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu said they believed agents who told them they could earn up to Rs 15,000 a month, plus food, accommodation and other perks.

Aegile Fernandez, of Tenaganita, a non-governmental organisation, said the workers are in depression and often break down when visited by NGOs to give them counselling or help.

They are worried about their families, as they have not sent any money home while some had even taken loans or sold their lands, she said.

The cases that have come to light since October allegedly involve three Malaysian companies and two Indian agents with counterparts in Malaysia.

A Malaysian company, Gopis Construction, reportedly hired Chennai-based Associated Tours Madras Ltd to get workers from India. Chin Well Fasteners and Tong Yong Metals, both located in Penang, northern Malaysia, were provided labour by Chennai-based Mithun Travels.

The Indian agents took the workers' money and made verbal promises about the level of salary and benefits they could expect. But when the migrants arrived in Malaysia, local agents and employers offered entirely different terms and washed their hands of whatever their Indian counterparts had said would be on offer.

"What was promised by Associated Tours is not my problem," said Kadiravelu Vellaisami, managing director of Gopis Construction.

"I don't know, there is no proof what was told by Mithun Travels," Gurjeet Singh, local agent who arranged employees for Tong Yong Metals, said.

Fearing legal action and under financial pressure, some of the Indian workers have signed contracts and started working, but others are seeking help. Some others, however, are on their way home.

Gopis Construction, which was asked by the Malaysian government to settle the wage dispute with the workers and pay for their air tickets, provided only for 19 of 45 workers.

Twenty-one workers from Tong Yong Metals pleaded to the Indian high commission in Kuala Lumpur for help. After the intervention of the high commission and Malaysia's human resources ministry, the workers were given shelter in Tong Yong's workers hostel in Penang.

"There is a need for a government-to-government-level agreement on the issue of labour import to stop this exploitation of Indian workers," said India's High Commissioner Veena Sikri.

Tell us what you think of this report