NILAI, April 10 – A total of 327 foreign workers, who had been camped and crammed into rooms – with as many as 60 people in one room – were today released from their miseries in a “housing quarter” here, following a rescue operation carried out by the Human Resources Ministry, according to a report in Tamil news portal, Nambikkai.
The crackdown was carried out by the ministry’s high committee with its Minister, V.Sivakumar in tow following a tip-off from the Bangladeshi High Commission, the report said.
These workers, from Bangladesh and Nepal, have been wronged, said Sivakumar.
At the time of the surprise raid, up to 60 people were said to be staying in one room. They were confined to nine-rooms in a three-storey building.
According to the report, the workers had been housed in these conditions for more than 40 days, without any electricity supply as well.
They had been brought in for work in Malaysia along with 1,719 foreign workers who had been sanctioned for four companies.
Three sanitation companies were said to have been given permission for 1,229 workers while a production house had permission for 490 workers.
A total of 608 people have been hired for the sanitation industry and 390 for the manufacturing sector.
But the remaining 327 people had been left unemployed here.
The company that brought them in failed to provide them with any employment opportunities, the minister said, adding that all of them will be moved to a temporary place.
He said there had been also complaints that those who had been hired were not employed in the said industries. Nearly 281 people have been employed in the wrong industries, Sivakumar said.
All the foreigners here would be temporarily shifted to another place.
At the same time, the Ministry of Human Resource Development will also take steps to provide employment opportunities to them in other industries.
The matter is to be investigated and those found guilty will be charged accordingly, the minister added.
–WE