Undeterred by the blowback from Putrajaya over its coverage of sovereign development fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), The Wall Street Journal yesterday published a report alleging that plantations under Malaysia’s Federal Land Development Agency (FELDA) participate in abuse of foreign labour, to the point of withholding their travel papers and not paying them their wages.
Writing for the WSJ, Syed Zain Al-Mahmood details anecdotal evidence that illegal migrants, many from Bangladesh and Myanmar’s minority Muslim Rohingya community, are employed in FELDA palm oil plantations under oppressive conditions.
The article cites a plantation run by Felda Global Ventures Holdings Berhad (FGV) as being one such operation using illegal labour and practices.
FGV is the world’s largest plantation operator, and is the corporate arm of FELDA.
“They buy and sell us like cattle,” WSJ quoted a 25-year-old worker from Bangladesh as saying.
He said he had been shunted among three contractors for six months without receiving any pay.
Another Bangladeshi said his contractor deducted 30% from his weekly pay when he took an hour off to attend Friday prayers.
The Edge reports that American lawmakers and human rights activists were alarmed at the US government’s plan to remove Malaysia from a list of countries with the world’s worst human trafficking track records.
US Senator Robert Menendez, the newsportal said, would call for an investigation should Washington decide to upgrade Malaysia’s standing in the US government from Tier 3 – the lowest rank – to Tier 2 in the 2014 Trafficking in Persons’ report (TIP).
The US government’s move is seen as a way to ease the process of ratifying the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, as Washington is legally barred from signing a deal with any country that is classified under Tier 3.
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