21 Indians claim torture, abuse under Malaysian employer

KUALA LUMPUR: Days after a young Indian worker was tortured and starved to death by his Malaysian employers, another case of abuse has surfaced with 21 Indian
nationals claiming they were beaten and not paid by the owner of a restaurant where they worked.

"There are at least 143,000 Indian labourers working in Malaysia. However, there are a few cases of fly-by-night recruitment agents, working in India and Malaysia, who flout
all laws and rules and cheat unsuspecting youth who just want to get out of the unemployment trap and fall for the foreign job offer," sources here said.

In the latest case, 21 Indian men, aged between 20 and 40, fled from their employer after not being paid and also beaten by them. One worker, identified as Rajan Muthu, from Tamil Nadu, said he had come to Malaysia in January last year but had been paid only one months' salary so far.

"The agent promised me a job of 800 ringgit (about Rs 9,600) per month for a 10-hour shift but on arrival here the employer said the salary was only 600 ringgit," Muthu said,
adding that he had only been paid for a month so far.

The employer reportedly said the rest of the money had been deducted to pay for the cost of getting him to Malaysia. Muthu also claimed that the employer had poured boiling water on his arm once.

Indian High Commission officials said that they were trying to get the employer to pay for the air ticket for the workers to return home.

Last week, a 28-year-old youth Ganesh died of starvation and torture. His employers, who are ethnic Indians, have been remanded to police custody and will be charged with murder.

"The Indian High Commission has strongly taken up the matter with the Foreign Office and the immigration authorities and we are in constant touch with the Penang police who are handling this case," officials said.

Referring to Ganesh's death, an official said that the worker could not even reach his family or the High Commission to plead for help as he was kept captive by the employer.

Meanwhile, Ganesh's body was flown back to India on Wednesday. His uncle P Gurunathan has said the family was contemplating sending one of their relatives to follow the
case.

"We want to know exactly what happened to Ganesh and the tortures that he had endured which led to his death," Gurunathan told a local daily in a telephone interview.

He said the family had appointed a Penang-based lawyer to represent them in the trial. "All we want is for justice to prevail."

Drafts on a proposed MoU on labour have already been exchanged by both India and Malaysia. Once an MoU is inked each work contract, after it is vetted by authorities in
India, will also be certified by the Indian High Commission here.

The MoU would include areas like overtime payment, working conditions, working hours etc of labourers who intend to work in this country.

Currently, the law here requires that the employer has to pay a levy of 120 ringgit per worker. However, it is not clear if the levy has to be borne by the employer or the employee.

In case it is the latter than provisions should be made for a higher salary, sources said.