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Migrant worker abuse detailed in AI report on Malaysia
Jakarta Globe - March 24, 2010
"Migrant workers come to Malaysia to escape poverty and to provide for their families. Once they arrive, however, many workers toil in conditions that amount to labor exploitation," the London-based rights group said in a report released on Wednesday.
Foreign laborers make up more than a fifth of Malaysia's work force, filling jobs at construction sites, factories, restaurants, households and palm oil plantations. But lower-than-promised wages, unsafe working conditions, and arbitrary arrests and extortion are common, the group said.
An Amnesty team visited Malaysia in July and interviewed more than 200 workers, both legal and illegal, for the 100-page report titled "Trapped – The Exploitation of Migrant Workers in Malaysia." Indonesian workers, the report said, told Amnesty they worked without pay for an initial period to cover the fees of their recruitment agents.
An Indonesian domestic worker, age 26, reportedly worked for six months with no wages, which she was told would be withheld to cover the expenses of the agent and the employer. Other Indonesian workers reported various deductions and levies that left them with barely enough to survive.
Work permits continue to be a major problem for migrants. The report quoted an Indonesian woman who worked at an electronics factory as saying she had not been given a work permit for almost a year, yet 100 ringgit ($30) was deducted from her wages every month to cover the expense.
Such an arrangement, the report said, was a violation of the Protection of Wages Convention, an International Labor Organization treaty ratified by Malaysia.
Workers also reported ill treatment and abuse by police.
"The last time the police came, they broke down the doors to our homes," Fernando, an Indonesian who worked at a sawmill, was quoted as saying. "They came into the house, opened all our bags and took away all our valuables."
Santos, also from Indonesia, described a raid at a factory where he was employed. "The police came in with batons and were hitting workers. I was also hit very hard."
Unsafe working conditions were also an issue. A worker at a timber-processing factory said there was insufficient protective gear and that an Indonesian colleague had fainted because he could not cope with the sawdust.
Malaysian Human Resource Minister S Subramaniam denied that foreign workers faced discrimination, saying they had the same rights as Malaysians.
He said workers could bring complaints of mistreatment to the Labor Department, which resolved most cases speedily.
"The system of bringing in foreign workers... is fair to everybody," he told the Associated Press. "We offer the same kind of protection to foreigners [as to locals].... We don't protect employers who exploit workers."
Amnesty urged Malaysia to increase workplace inspections and step up prosecution of those who mistreated workers.
"This report documents the widespread nature of exploitation in Malaysia... in every sector of employment," said Michael Bochenek, Amnesty's director of policy. "There is no effective system of workplace inspection... nor is there any effective redress for workers who want to bring individual complaints."
It is estimated that there are two million Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia. Only about 1.2 million of them hold legal documents, according to Indonesia's Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.
In June, Indonesia imposed a moratorium on sending workers to Malaysia after a string of high-profile cases in which they were physically abused by their employers. The two governments are negotiating a revised memorandum of understanding to give more rights to Indonesian workers, such as a minimum wage, allowing them to retain their passports and one day off each week.
Rosstiawati, who heads the overseas workers' department at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, said that on Wednesday, the governments were supposed to have a joint working group in Jakarta to discuss the agreement, but the Malaysian government had not responded to the invitation.
But she said progress had been made at a previous meeting in the neighboring country, with Malaysia agreeing to set up a task force to protect migrant workers from violence.
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