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.
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