Malaysia worker ‘abused to death’

Speaking from his hospital bed on Thursday, a day before he died, Ganesh, 28, said his employers had forced him to work from 8am to midnight every day since he began work last August.

 

 

“They chained my hands and legs before locking me up in a dark room in their house every night” R Ganesh, migrant worker, speaking to New Straits Times before his death

He said: “They hit me with sticks, rubber hose and iron rods. I was also deprived of food and water. They chained my hands and legs before locking me up in a dark room in their house every night.”

 

He was also warned not to try to escape or go to the police.

 

Police have arrested the employers, a middle-aged couple and their son, who run a business making chilli sauce, and are investigating the case as a murder, the paper said.

 

Human rights groups have urged Malaysia to tighten labour and immigration laws that expose migrant workers to the risk of abuse and exploitation by employers and recruiters.

 

With Malaysians reluctant to take up menial jobs, the country is one of Asia‘s largest importers of foreign labour, which makes up a quarter of a workforce of about 10.5 million, particularly on plantations, in construction and in domestic service.