This is a true account related by Charles Santiago of a Bangladeshi named Ahmed who exposes the cruel ordeals and the atrocities of Malaysians involved in human trafficking and bonded labour.
In September 2022, an article about the disgraceful and failed Malaysian endeavour to fight human trafficking became more irrelevant to Malaysians than the paper it was printed on. The article was oblivious to man and country while the paper at least served the purpose of wrapping nasi lemak and pisang goreng.
Trafficking in Persons Tiers 1 to 3
Trafficking in Persons or TIP: is a scale that grades countries in managing Human trafficking. There are three tiers or grades that rank a country, by their effort in combating trafficking.
Tier 1: Fully acknowledges the trafficking problem and manages it.
Tier 2: Not fully complying with the standards but making significant efforts in doing so.
Tier 3: Full violation of human trafficking, no or little effort in managing it.
Continuation of Ahmed’s story
After a tip-off, the Labour Department (Jabatan Tenaga Kerja Semenanjung Malaysia) appeared and demanded answers to our dreadful living conditions and food from Derek, who visibly seemed afraid of them.
He, in turn, lied to them about the matter and said that it was only temporary and were in transit there for two days and would be moving soon.
Three days later, some of the men were taken away to a Government facility on a bus after a miserable 25 days. Twenty men left for Penang with Derek, and the JTKSM never even checked their documents to see if they were legally employed.
Ahmed remained in KL but was kept in the loop by the 20, who told him of the harsh treatment they underwent, which were the dangerous jobs they did without protective equipment, succumbing to injuries etc. As usual, they were not paid, resulting in one of them running away in abscondment.
Ahmed along with 10 or 12 others were accommodated in a room while the rest were distributed in other apartment units tenanted by Malaysians who were also finding ways and means to pay rent.
One day one of the workers had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital by his friends without Ravi or Derek who refused to come to his aid. Thank God! The Government hospital gave him treatment and medication, after which he went back to his room.
Knowing that he would not last too long in Malaysia under the circumstances, he wanted to return to his homeland but his handlers told him to pay for his return ticket.
All the Bangladeshis who became friends over time in Malaysia pooled in whatever they had including borrowing some more to purchase an airline ticket for him.
The initial group of seventy, now reduced in size to thirty-four and was kept separated and frequently relocated by Derek to curb information sharing between them.
A month had passed at their third location and they were not given work and were provided with only meals by Derek, which had to be picked up from a restaurant below their quarters.
This was the same restaurant where Santiago met Ahmed and his mates.
Ravi had informers within the group to be kept informed of any threats or surprises that may come if there was mutiny or an uprising, Ahmed told Santiago.
It was not because there were no jobs, the real reason for not being employed was that Derek was greedy and wanted very high commissions for his bonded labourers.
We feel like animals that are bought and sold by people like Derek and the syndicates just for profits he told Santiago with tears in his eyes.
Twenty from the group were sent to Penang and were promised RM 80 per day.
There they were made to do hard labour and not paid as promised and were relocated to another job after a month by Derek.
Derek made it clear to the bonded labourers and victims that they would have to fork out money if they wanted to sever ties with him.
A price, which was RM 7000 had to be paid for the return of their passports and would increase by RM 1000 every week if delayed and RM 4500 if they wanted their visas and permits renewed for another year.
Charles Santiago concluded that the labour law (forced labour) violations were
1. Abuse of vulnerability;
2. Deception;
3. Intimidation and threats;
4. Retention of identity documents; and
5. Debt bondage.
These were all denoted in the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) forced labour standards, the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030, and Malaysian labour laws.
Ahmed and his friends are being held as bonded slaves and are in debt bondage.
Malaysia is currently a 3rd world country and ranked Tier 3 Trafficking in Persons (TIP)
The lowest in the scale for the fourth time, the other years being 2007, 2014, and 2021.
It remains an exotic destination for such activities and is the preferred hub for the surrounding region which is utilised for transit and transfer of these victims to different destinations.
The Global Slavery Index 2019 reported that more than 212,000 people were trapped in situations of slavery, also linked to human trafficking in this country.
Many organisations have been created and linked to a network of existing ones but the dragnet to weed out the perpetrators seems to have too many holes and the country remains in Tier 3.
Hoodwinked by opportunities of making a decent living in this country they take a gamble and land on our shores surpassing a weak, corrupt and deficient immigration system.
In retrospect to their dreams, they only go to create opportunities for corruption and the corrupted, involving agents and middlemen all in cahoots with authorities.
Every Malaysian should realise that these people are not only in Malaysia to escape poverty in their country but are in turn helping us build ours.
They take on jobs that Malaysians do not because of the low wages policies so we must appreciate their presence to help and protect which builds the larger picture.
Let’s collectively take heed of what Charles Santiago is telling us and combat these inhumane acts and weed out bullying of any sort whether it is man or animal.
eashwerdass is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.