Amnesty International Report: Malaysia: Trapped: The exploitation of migrant workers in Malaysia

The Malaysian authorities should take action to end widespread workplace and police abuses of the migrant workers who make up more than 20 per cent of the country’s workforce, Amnesty International said in a report released on Wednesday, 24 March 2010.

Drawn by promises of jobs in Malaysia, thousands of men and women from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal and elsewhere in the region pay substantial sums to recruitment agents. Once they arrive, they find that much of what their agents told them about their new jobs is untrue. Malaysia’s economy depends on the labour of migrant workers yet the government effectively criminalizes them. Malaysia can and should do more, beginning with a reform of its labour laws, prompt investigation of workplace and police abuses, and effective use of its Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act. (Download the PDF version of the report here)

See AI report at link below:

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/malaysia-must-end-abuse-migrant-workers-2010-03-24