Malaysian family charged with abuse

Accused face two years’ jail for allegedly beating and starving worker to death.

R Ganesh, Indian migrant worker
Ganesh said he was hit with sticks and iron rods, and deprived of food and water[Reuters]

Ganesh, 28, died in hospital on April 27, three days after he was taken there by villagers who found him bruised and emaciated in a remote forest in northern Malaysia. 

 

His employers are believed to have left him for dead.

 

Doctors said that aside from the injuries caused by repeated beatings he was suffering from malnutrition and dehydration as a result of starvation.

 
Speaking from his hospital bed to the newspaper a day before he died, Ganesh said his employers had forced him to work from 8am to midnight every day since he began work in August.
 
‘Deprived of food’
 

“They chained my hands and legs before locking me up in a dark room in their house every night”

R Ganesh

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.

 

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.

 

Ganesh’s body was received by his family in his hometown of Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, India, on Thursday.

Source: Al Jazeera