L A B O U R - M A L A Y S I A
Abused Sikh Workers Left High and Dry
by Baradan Kuppusamy
KUALA LUMPUR — Darshan Singh's story is all too
familiar for many human rights activists. He was recruited from the
Indian state of Punjab to work in a Malaysian company. But things
soon turned nasty when the labour recruiter pocketed all his salary,
housed him in a crammed place, fed him flour and lentils and went
further to abuse and torture him.
The 29-year-old Darshan, a practising Sikh, sold his motorcycle,
all of his wife's few and precious jewellery and borrowed 8,600
ringgit (2,261 U.S. dollars) from a loan shark to buy an air ticket to
Malaysia. The air ticket price also included a 'visa and agents' fee'.
All this was done on the promises of a soft-spoken Punjabi-
speaking woman who acted as the labour recruiter.
Sikhism is the youngest of the great world faiths. There are 20
million Sikhs in the world, most living in India. Sikh men are easily
identified by their beards and turbans, which are an outward sign of
their religious identity.
The labour recruiter had promised Darshan a "safe and secure"
job laying electrical cables and a guaranteed 1,500 ringgit (395 U.S.
dollars) a month, with food and lodging thrown in together with
medical benefits.
He hoped to work for three years and to return home with enough
hard cash to pay off the loan, buy his wife new jewellery, get himself
a new motorcycle and hopefully have enough left to start a small
business in his village in Punjab.
Like other migrant workers, Darshan's dream was dashed the day
he landed at the spanking new billion dollar Kuala Lumpur
International Airport with 17 other workers that the agent had
recruited from the Indian state.
Their passports and remaining cash they had were taken away;
the terms of their work contract were altered and they were 'sold off'
to another employer.
Since arriving in Malaysia, Darshan and the others have suffered
nothing but misery. Today their home is a Sikh temple in the city that
has been kind enough to give them temporary refuge.
"We worked hard but were not paid the promised wages since the
day we arrived...we were physically abused. Today we have nothing
but the clothes we wear, no passports, no money, no jobs and no
future," Darshan told IPS.
"All our dreams are shattered," he said. "We have huge debts back
home and can't go back unless we get work here, safe money and
return home to pay up."
Under the circumstances such a possibility remains a distant
dream.
Darshan is a Sikh and also feels humiliated that he was forced to
discard his turban and cut his hair short on the grounds that he had
to wear a safety helmet in his job.
"I was deeply humiliated," Darshan said. Two other Sikhs had their
hair cut too. According to the workers they were warned that if they
wore turbans again they would lose their job.
On Wednesday Darshan and the 17 workers related their plight to
the National Human Rights Commission or SUHAKAM -- a
government funded human rights body with only an advisory role to
the authorities.
SUHAKAM commissioners Simon Sipaun and Jamaludin Othman,
who heard their stories, were staggered by the inhumanity inflicted
on these Sikh workers.
"I cannot understand how one human being can treat another so
cruelly and inhumanely....theirs is a sad story and I wonder how the
employer would feel if the roles were reversed," Sipaun told a press
conference.
"We will investigate the matter," he said.
The workers were taken to see SUHAKAM by Aegile Fernandez,
program co-coordinator of TENAGANITA or Women's Force -- a
leading human rights NGO that champions the rights of migrant
workers and women in vulnerable situations.
The workers related how they were crowded into a room with only
one fan and many slept on the floor. "We had rice and dhal (lentils)
for food and were paid130 ringgit (34 U.S. dollars) each for the three
months of work we had done," one of the workers said.
"We were hungry most of the time," said another worker.
One day in mid July, Fernandez said, the 18 workers walked out of
their jobs and made their way to the Indian High Commission
seeking help. They were also referred to TENAGANITA.
"The workers were abused, tortured, humiliated and exploited by
the agents and contractors," said Fernandez who urged firm police
action against the perpetrators.
Fernandez told IPS TENAGANITA would also lodge reports with the
International Labour Organisation and the United Nations Special
Rapporteur on Rights of Migrant Workers to seek justice and
publicise the plight of migrant workers in Malaysia.
"This is a classic case of abuse by employers who took the
workers wages, housed them in a crammed place, gave them flour
and dhal as food and abused and humiliated them," Fernandez
said.
"This is fraudulent recruitment made on false promises and
tantamount to trafficking of people for labour," she said. "It is in direct
violation of the U.N. Optional Protocol against Trafficking and
Smuggling of Persons."
"The government must take this abuse seriously and right the
wrong," she said, adding that forcing Sikhs to crop their hair is
"deeply humiliating" and tantamount to torture.
She also said agents, contractors and employers have come to
believe that they would not be punished for abusing and maltreating
migrant workers.
"Very few employers have ever been punished," she said.
Human rights NGOs having seen the same pattern of abuse of
migrant workers over and over again have demanded for a total
revamp of the entire employment system but without much success.
Fernandez said there are three factors why such migrant workers
persist.
One, corruption backed with a thriving number of recruiting
agencies in the Asian region, makes it easy to bring people through
illegal means.
Second, many employers withhold the passports and other
documents of their migrant employees. During raids when the
migrant is forced to leave his work, the documents are left behind.
Without proper papers, the migrant becomes undocumented.
Third, many employers themselves "like to keep" undocumented
workers because the former "don't have to spend much money". (END/Copyright IPS)
