Indian worker dies after abuse in Malaysia: Paper

Kuala Lumpur, Apr 28: An Indian worker has died in Malaysia after being beaten and starved for eight months in one of the most harrowing cases of migrant worker abuse in years, a newspaper said today.

R Ganesh, a worker from India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, was so badly treated that his employers eventually left him for dead in a jungle about 400 km from the Malaysian capital, the New Straits Times said.

Villagers who discovered Ganesh the next day were shocked by the sight of his bruised and emaciated frame, and took him to hospital, where doctors said he was suffering from malnutrition and dehydration as a result of starvation.

Speaking from his hospital bed on Thursday, a day before he died, Ganesh, 28, said his employers had forced him to work from 8 am to midnight every day since he began work last August.

''They hit me with sticks, rubber hose and iron rod,'' he told the paper. ''I was also deprived of food and water. They chained my hands and legs before locking me up in a dark room in their house every night.'' He was also warned not to try to escape or go to the police.

Police have arrested the employers, a middle-aged couple and their son, who run a business making chilli sauce, and are investigating the case as a murder, the paper added.

Human rights groups have urged Malaysia to plug loopholes in labour and immigration laws that expose migrant workers to the risk of abuse and exploitation by employers and recruiters.

With Malaysians reluctant to take up menial jobs, the country is one of Asia's largest importers of foreign labour, which makes up a quarter of a workforce of about 10.5 million, particularly on plantations, in construction and in domestic service.

Reuters>