The promise of lucrative salaries are luring many Malaysians abroad but most are scams leaving these job seekers cheated and in need of rescuing.
The promise of lucrative salaries are luring many Malaysians abroad but most are scams leaving these job seekers cheated and in need of rescuing.
IT is ironic that at the same time there is an ongoing crackdown on illegal immigrants in the country, Malaysians are being detained in countries like Cambodia, South Korea and even Liberia.
These detentions have increased in frequency to the extent that Wisma Putra has issued a warning to “remind all Malaysians to be cautious of opportunities offered in foreign countries, and always verify the prospective employers”.
It used to be that foreigners (read: South Asians and South-East Asians) were drawn to Malaysia’s booming property and service sectors for better paying jobs.
They still are. On Monday, as part of operations codenamed Ops Mega 3.0, some 73 illegal immigrants, from Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, were held by the police under the Immigration Act. These foreigners were working at the Selangor wholesale market without proper work documents.
But how times have changed. The roles appear to be reversed, the Malaysians that have been detained overseas were for exactly similar offences – no proper work documents.
This time last year, The Star’s Bahasa Malaysia news portal mStar Online revealed that there was an estimated 5,000 Malaysians working and staying illegally in South Korea. The less fortunate ones were forced to live like refugees, always on the run from the authorities.
These Malaysians were lured by job advertisements that claimed they could earn a lucrative living in the land of K-pop. They paid recruitment agents thousands of ringgit in fees and entered South Korea with tourist visas.
Some of these Malaysians interviewed by mStar spoke about the hardships they faced including poor living conditions, tough working environment and employers holding back their salaries.
The Korean police and its justice ministry have begun cracking down on these illegals, starting from last month. Those without proper documentation will be immediately deported.
But Malaysians never learn. Two recent cases highlight the need for employees to be more vigilant and for the authorities to crack down on fly-by-night recruitment agents.
First, the case of the 47 Sarawakians who were detained in Cambodia since Dec 11 last year on charges of cheating and initiating and carrying out illegal online gambling activities.
It was reported that the Malaysians were promised jobs with lucrative salaries up to US$1,500 (RM6,100), and only found out that it was a scam when they arrived in Cambodia.
Their plight was highlighted in local media, and Wisma Putra, other leaders and representatives from Sarawak flew to Cambodia to secure their release. They were finally released on Feb 15.
The second recent case also involved Sarawakians. Eight of them were left stranded in Monrovia, Liberia, since Feb 4 after being offered logging jobs with wages up to RM9,000.
They were left stranded in the African nation without any money, and managed to survive because they were given rice by Malaysians working with Sime Darby in Liberia.
“If not for the rice, we would definitely be dead,” said Aji Surau, 39, after arriving at KL International Airport on March 4, one month after their ordeal.
He said they were abandoned in a house with no water and electricity and even resorted to eating papaya leaves to survive.
All these cases have one thing in common – dodgy job syndicates.
These unscrupulous agents rake in thousands of ringgit by promising the world to gullible locals.
“I want to advise Malaysians to be cautious when getting job offers overseas because this is not the first such incident.
“Check with the authorities concerned, especially the Malaysian representatives, whether the company offering the job is legitimate or not,” Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah told reporters after the Liberian detainees were released.
The Cambodia and Liberia incidences appear to be genuine cases of people who were promised legitimate work contracts. But for every genuine case, there are five others who play the “victim” card.
In some countries where Malaysians are caught working illegally, they claimed that they were lured there with guarantees of proper employment with legal documentation. But the reality is that these people went overseas on tourist visas with the sole intention of getting a job, by whatever means.
Did you know that Malaysians are the worst visa abusers when it comes to overstaying in Australia?
According to a 2018 report from the Australian Department of Home Affairs, there were 62,000 people overstaying their visas and living illegally in Australia, with Malaysians making up the largest number. Between 2016 and 2017 alone, 10,000 Malaysians had overstayed!
As a result of this blatant abuse of tourist visas, the Australian authorities have made it harder for Malaysians to enter the country.
Australian-based news site news.com.au quoted a source from the Malaysian mission in Australia as saying that more Malaysians are being turned away at the airports, despite having the necessary visas approved before departure.
These visa scams are not only giving us a bad name, but also making it more difficult for genuine Malaysian tourists to visit Australia.
The latest “tourist” scam is via social media where syndicates are luring people to become drug mules by offering them cash and opportunities to go for tours abroad. But beware, if you’re caught deportation is the least of your problems. A stiff jail sentence or even the death penalty awaits.
Brian Martin, executive editor of The Star, would like to come
clean. He has vested interest in the proposed assessment rate hike since
he’s a resident of Kuala Lumpur.
Don’t get conned, Malaysians warned
Labour Dept: Only use services of licensed private recruitment companies
From “interviews” in coffeeshops to being persuaded to work in war-torn countries with lucrative salaries, Malaysians are being increasingly conned into travelling to work overseas, only to run into trouble.
This has prompted the Labour Department to advise those wishing to work overseas to only use the services of licensed private recruitment companies.
Seeking the services of licensed private job agencies under the Labour Department as provided in the Private Employment Agencies Act (1981) would help one avoid being conned or exploited by unscrupulous agents or employers overseas, it said.
“There’s a possibility that high salaries offered has become a pull factor in enticing Malaysians to work overseas.
“The Labour Department is always carrying out enforcement activities under the Private Employment Agencies Act (1981) to monitor the activities of illegitimate agencies and agents,” it said in response to questions by The Star.
The Labour Department, which is under the Human Resources Ministry, was responding to queries about the increasing media reports highlighting Malaysians being conned in overseas jobs.
While the Labour Department said it did not have any records on the numbers of overseas job scam cases affecting Malaysians, it encourages those with information on such cases to come forward.
“We have not received reports on job scams. However, victims can file a report with the Labour Department, including in Sabah and Sarawak for any job scams issues so that we can act accordingly,” it said.
MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said many of the job scam victims he encountered were enticed to work in African or Middle Eastern countries.
“Many of these countries are war-torn and so these ‘employment agents’ would tell the victims there is a lot of construction work to rebuild the country.
“These victims are mostly semi-skilled or unskilled workers who are attracted to the salaries which are supposedly from RM6,000 to RM10,000 a month,” he said.
However, he said, these victims were then cheated out of their salaries and left with little to no protection in a foreign country.
To stop these scams from occurring, he urged those interested to find work to carry out background checks on the company.
“You must make sure that there is an incorporated company so if anything happened to you, there is a company we could look for,” he said.
He also advised people to be wary if the salary offered is too good to be true, or if the job interview doesn’t take place in the company’s office.
“There are some ‘interviews’ which are even being conducted in coffeeshops,” said Chong.
He said he noticed more of such cases in recent years, especially as many Malaysians want to go overseas to eke out a livelihood.
Last December, 47 Malaysians were detained in Cambodia for being involved in illegal online gambling activities.
It was reported that they were offered jobs with lucrative salaries but had only found out that it was a scam when they arrived in Cambodia.
In February, eight Sarawakians were stranded in Liberia after allegedly being cheated by an employment syndicate.
The Malaysian Employers Federation called for a dedicated government agency to help protect the welfare of Malaysians who go overseas to work.
Its executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan said this was to prevent them from being exploited and falling prey to illegal job syndicates.
“We have more than one million Malaysians working overseas but we have no proper body to monitor their affairs,” he said yesterday.
He noted that the Filippine government would ensure that their citizens who are sent overseas to work are properly trained and that they are employed by a legitimate company.
“The Filipino government would ensure that there is a proper document signed between the employer and agent, and if anything happens to the worker, the agent will be held responsible.
“We should emulate the Philippines to help our workers who aspire to work overseas,” he said.
However, he said the grim reality was that many Malaysian workers were enticed to work overseas because of the attractive pay, even if the details surrounding the employment were unclear.
“Employees are attracted to the higher wages offered in those countries, where the income promised triple or even quadruple what they are earning in Malaysia – and most of these jobs do not require high level of skills such as picking fruit.
“A difficult economic situation in Malaysia with the rising costs of living also contribute to the problem.
“We must re-look at our employment practices, how we remunerate our employees and develop our talent,” he said.
Malaysian Trades Union Congress secretary-general J. Solomon agreed that better policies and enforcement were needed to monitor the outflow of Malaysian workers to other countries.
“The authorities and their relevant agencies need to know where Malaysian workers are going when they travel overseas,” he said.
He said tighter enforcement was especially needed as more false job advertisements were disseminated easily on various social media platforms.
“It is high time the Cabinet review and encourage companies to comply with minimum wage level,” he said.
The low wages in Malaysia and the stigma of 3D (dirty, dangerous and difficult) jobs cause Malaysians to desperately seek employment outside the country, he added.
“These factors are causing Malaysians to go elsewhere to find alternative sources of income,” he said.
By Fatimah zainal and Clarissa Chung The Star
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Statistics from the federal police showed as at May 23, 100 men and 15 women aged between 17 and 41, were still stuck in various countries including Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.
“We have received a total of 110 police reports on Malaysians stranded abroad after being victims of job scams.
“We believe the victims have been stranded there for at least six months. We are actively pursuing all cases to assist the victims,” he added.
Police reports were lodged by the victims’ families after they managed to call home, he said.
“In most cases, the victims managed to inform their family members of their predicament.
“We believe the number of police reports increased after the recent successful rescue of Malaysians abroad, with such cases being highlighted in the media,” he added.
Last month, the Malaysian Embassy in Cambodia said it had rescued more than 60 Malaysians coerced into working for scam call centres over the past few years.
On April 6, 16 Malaysians held captive in Sihanoukville on the south coast of Cambodia were also rescued.
The victims claimed they were duped by offers of jobs as customer service representatives with lucrative salaries for a Cambodian company.
Once in Cambodia, their personal documents were seized and their movements restricted.
Since the reopening of the country’s borders, more dubious job offers were being uploaded on social media, Comm Abd Jalil said.
“Some people are desperate due to a lack of jobs because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Among the main factors that enticed victims to such job scams are lucrative salary offers and benefits.
“We believe the convenience of finding a job overseas is also a factor that influenced the victims’ decisions,” he added.
Comm Abd Jallil said initial investigations showed the syndicates were forcing these Malaysians into working in scams and gambling dens.
“We are building more intelligence on the human trafficking syndicates to effectively clamp down on such job scams.
“We are working hard with the Interpol and Aseanapol to track down and rescue victims.
“We are also collaborating with the Foreign Ministry to expedite efforts in rescuing the victims overseas,” he added.
He also appealed for more awareness to prevent others from falling victims.
“We are working with government agencies and NGOs especially the MCA Public Services and Complaints Department on creating more awareness on such job scams.
“We are focusing on the importance of being careful when considering jobs offered overseas via social media,” he said.
Comm Abd Jalil advised the public to know and adhere to local laws and regulations when accepting jobs overseas.
“Before accepting any job offers, do a thorough background check on the prospective employer or company,” he said.
Comm Abd Jalil added that the police welcome information on syndicates that duped Malaysians and forced them to conduct illegal activities overseas.
