Indians duped by Malaysian employers

KUALA LUMPUR: At least 200 foreign workers, including several Indians with valid papers, are stranded for the last 12 days at the international airport here as their employers have failed to pick them up.

''They (the Indian nationals) have all the valid documents including a letter from the Malaysian Human Resources Ministry and if this matter goes unchecked it will certainly tarnish the country's image,'' Siva Subramanian, an officer with the Human Rights Commission was quoted by the 'Star' newspaper as saying.

''This is one of the hundreds of cases of foreign workers getting stranded as the result of irresponsible employers,'' he said.

There have been scores of cases where workers from India have come to Malaysia after being promised high wages and great working conditions by job agents but find they have been duped when they arrive here.

 On several occasions, employers do not turn up at the airport to pick them up a and take them to their place of employment.

Siva said the employers had violated the workers' human rights as they (the workers) had to pay for their food and were forced to sleep on cold floor.

The paper said Siva was tipped off by a member of the public that some 700 foreign workers had been staying at a holding pen located at the east end of the international arrivals hall.

Of these, the 200 had arrived 12 days ago and were waiting for their future employers to show up.