KUALA LUMPUR - The living quarters of migrant workers in Kajang, about 30 kilometres from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, were like a buffalo cage - dirty and smelly. In a December raid, Malaysia's Human Resources Minister M Saravanan was shocked and horrified to discover that 751 foreigners, working at a glove-processing factory, were living in two 1.5-metre-tall containers which could only accommodate 100 people.
After the deluge of headlines during ASEAN’s 50th birthday in 2017 and before that, the start of the ASEAN Community in 2016, this year may signal a return to what many see as ASEAN’s return to its uneventful – or boring – ways.
NOT all stories of labor migration in Southeast Asia are bleak and foreboding. Many workers are only too happy to have found employment in the region’s more affluent states—with none of the struggles of their not-so-fortunate compatriots.
CONFLICTING interests of labor-sending countries like Indonesia and the Philippines and of labor-receiving countries like Malaysia and Thailand partly explain why it will likely take years for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to make the regional instrument to promote and protect the rights of labor migrants a reality.
SHORTLY after arriving in Kuala Lumpur early this year to work as a domestic worker, Marissa Santos (not her real name) began complaining of severe stomach pains. Her Malaysian employer promptly returned Santos to her recruiter, also a Malaysian. But instead of getting her medical help, the recruiter subjected Santos to slave-like treatment at his spa.