YOURSAY | Turning a blind eye to atrocities towards migrant workers

YOURSAY | ‘Strange that no one is able or even allowed to fix it.’

How migrant quota fraudster hides behind shell companies, big wigs

Migrant worker import quota won via fake deals, then traded for millions

BobbyO: This is just the tip of the iceberg. This nation is sinking under multiple negative events.  

The many corrupt scandals have made a dent in our nation’s reputation.

Our stand with what the West considers a terror organisation is going to be another rope around our neck that is going to bring us down.

Now, the exposure of how foreign workers are treated in this nation will cause a black mark on our reputation.

For a small, tiny nation, we have soiled this nation’s reputation. The guilty are the authority figures who turn a blind eye in exchange for monetary benefits.

The politicians are too busy playing race and religious cards. They are trying to protect their positions that bring handsome rewards.

Even some of those working in foreign embassies are profiting from this lucrative business.  This has been going on for a long time.

What about the workers not getting their full salaries? How many of them are suffering due to being held in bondage by their employers?  

What about those who are being assaulted each time they raise the issue of their rights?  

How many more atrocities at our doorstep are our leaders turning a blind eye to?  

Every nation is busy protecting their own interests. They have learnt bitter lessons over the years of opening their borders to refugees.

Is it not time to come home and clean up the mess in our backyard?  Yes, the mess started at the time of previous administrations.

Were promises not made to put this nation on the right track? So do your job, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Determined Sarawakian: It seems recruitment companies don’t have to be registered with the Human Resource Ministry. Why is that so?

If they aren’t registered, they can openly abuse and scam migrant workers and be a front to human trafficking schemes.

So many issues have arisen and yet, the Human Resource Ministry is still on the back burner.

The Human Resource Ministry must work together with the Home Ministry, especially the Immigration Department, on which companies or consultancies are legitimate sources of foreign labour.

Ideally, the Foreign Ministry should work on the education and awareness front with embassies and consulates and highlight to aspirant migrant workers, which agencies are legitimate and which aren’t.

Coordinate with local law enforcement in those hiring countries to curb agencies that are illegitimate fronts for fake overseas employment or scams.

Human Resources Minister V Sivakumar, the ball is in your court. Please act.

Bravemalaysian: The police and MACC should step in without waiting for a report as this is human trafficking together with a suspected murder.

The labour industry has for too long been scourged with corruption and inhumane practices.

The people involved must be held accountable and the human trafficking syndicate be broken up once and for all.

Arrangements for foreign labour and all proceeds should go straight to the respective governments involved. The cost to employers will also fall dramatically as a result.

Why let traffickers prosper beyond the limits of human decency when hundreds of thousands of human beings suffer in disgraceful misery?

God is observing everything and justice will, of course, ultimately be served. But that aside, we want justice now because our system provides it.

What is hindering this government from doing the right thing? Is it corruption from within also?

Dummies Dhimmi: Foreign labour is the main driver of the Singaporean economy. For decades, they have brought in hundreds of thousands of them.

Have you heard of such things there?

The system here bleeds money from the poor into unscrupulous hands constructed with overlapping government agencies.

Agencies run by little Napoleons that involve much built-in red tape often need “lubrication” to get anything done.

Strange that no one is able, or even allowed, to fix it.

Koel: Well done, Malaysiakini and Nepal Centre of Independent Journalism.

Unfortunately, all our media agencies and watchdogs still play second fiddle to the establishment, it seems.

But what happens to these exposes that are highlighted time and time again?

Are any NGOs keeping this issue firmly in the public eye? Where are these human rights defenders?

Home Ministry, this is blowing up in your face. Various agencies are mentioned here. Will there be any action on your part, or are you too busy worrying about the Middle East?

The article identifies all the gaps and loopholes that have created this problem.

Is there going to be any urgency from Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail or the prime minister?

You shout day and night about compassion for fellow men and here you have intermediaries in your country allegedly cheating people and even murdering people in broad daylight while government departments and civil service appear to offer a helping hand.

Drkam: It’s perplexing how policymakers, after years of importing foreign labour, failed to plan adequately for Malaysia’s future.

The imbalance between the number of graduates and the shortage in vocational and technical training is striking.

The recent statistics showed that, in 2022, Malaysia produced almost six million graduates!  

Balancing salaries between white-collar and blue-collar jobs could potentially mitigate this issue by encouraging participation across various industries.

Augmented by quality education, the innovation of machinery could facilitate easier and more rewarding labour roles.

Presently, our output predominantly seems to consist of get-rich-quick scammers, hackers, and greedy young politicians, leaving a significant gap in industries that require a different skill set.

RimauTongkatAli: With this much detail exposed, the leg work is more or less done for the police to execute.

Like some other cases with overwhelming evidence, these may likely never see any prosecution due to their political ties. In Bolehland, this is the norm.

Get used to it and pray that we still have a country after the politicians and their goons are done plundering.

Vent: Excellent reporting by Malaysiakini but something's seriously amiss.

Quite apart from the usual delayed reaction (hopefully forthcoming) from the Human Resource Ministry, not a squeak from the Nepalese ambassador unlike his louder-than-loud Indonesian counterpart Hermano.

Sleeping on the job, or are they part of the ring too? How about the Nepalese government?

Too hungry for the Malaysian ringgit that won’t be attractive very soon?

Darmakochi: Malaysiakini thanks for this painful report that made me feel ashamed to call myself a Malaysian.

I am very sure the authorities and agencies are aware of this inhumane racket but just “buat tak tahu” as usual.

Splendid work in exposing this inhumane activity.

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