Welcome Guest   |  Login   |   Signup
JG Logo
Fri, February 10, 2012
Archive Search

Indonesian Women Slaves Saved from Malaysian Hell

Share This Page
13
19
0
0
Share with google+ :


Post a comment
Please login to post comment

Comments

Be the first to write your opinion!

Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian authorities rescued 71 Indonesian women who claimed they were forced to work long hours as cleaners without pay for at least two years, an official said Monday.

Immigration officials raided a house where the women were staying after three of them fled and alerted authorities, said Nar Azaman Ibrahim, the immigration enforcement chief of Malaysia’s northern Kedah state. The women were kept at the house and sent to different homes for daily cleaning jobs.

The women entered neighboring Malaysia through a migrant worker recruitment agent who promised to find them work as maids for 500 ringgit ($160) a month. But when they arrived, the man took away their passports and forced them to clean homes every day without any time off, Nar Azaman said.

Most of the women, including one as young as 17, had never been paid, but were promised they would receive money eventually, Nar Azaman said.

The man who held them has been arrested and could be charged with human trafficking, an offense that carries a maximum prison term of 15 years.

The women are now at a shelter in an illegal migrant detention center near Kuala Lumpur.

Nearly 2 million foreigners, mostly from poorer regional countries, work in Malaysia’s construction, plantation, manufacturing and service industries. Claims of overwork, unpaid salaries and sometimes even physical abuse are common.


Associated Press