Call for unjustly treated foreign workers to lodge report
Posted on May 31, 2012, Thursday
GEORGE TOWN: Foreign workers who have been unjustly treated by their employers, especially in terms of benefits and salary payment, should lodge a report to the authorities, such as the police and immigration officers.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s (UKM) Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS) senior fellow, Prof Dr Azizah Kassim, said such a move would enable the workers to get help to uphold their rights.
“Our investigations found that these workers are reluctant to give their cooperation to the authorities, and hence causing their problems to be left unsolved,” she told reporters after attending a seminar of anti-trafficking of persons and anti-smuggling of migrants at Universiti Sains Malaysia here yesterday.
Azizah also called on the government to increase the number of shelter homes for victims of human trafficking to reduce cost and smoothen the trial process.
At present, she said there were only five shelter homes for victims of human-trafficking, with one in Sabah and four in the peninsula.
Meanwhile, Azizah also said that the number of human trafficking cases had shown a decline between 2009 and Jan 30, 2012.
She said it was believed that the decline was due to the government’s effort to put the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 into effect.
“As the Act takes effect, the number of human trafficking cases in the country has declined from 159 in 2009 to 132 (2010), 119 (2011) and only 49 cases as at January this year,” she added. — Bernama
<< Previous Entry - Next Entry >>
