Authorities Probing Forced Labour In Bentong Video

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The Immigration Department has opened investigations based on a circulating video clip allegedly depicted the plight of 48 migrant workers subjected to forced labour
"The director-general has ordered for investigations into the video, which is now going viral on social media, to be conducted immediately," said a highly-placed Immigration Department source
Earlier today, P Muniandy, the political secretary to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department P Waythamoorthy, lodged a police report in Kedah after viewing the video clip
Muniandy claimed that if the claims turn out to be true, it could constitute a case of wrongful restraint and confinement, which is illegal under the Penal Code and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007
The four minute and 34-second video clip depicts a man speaking in front of group, located in what appears to be the middle of a forest
According to the narrator, the group is comprised of 48 labourers from Tamil Nadu who were being subjected to torture and beatings while their salaries and travel papers were withheld
"Whoever that watches this video, please help us. We can't even get word back home regarding our plight. Please send us back to India. Just send us home alive. That's all we ask
"The (business) owner is (name and ethnicity withheld pending comments). Please rescue us before he sees this video. We are in a place called Bentong," said the unidentified man
It is not immediately clear from the video clip what sort of occupation the group is involved in. Several were seen clutching blue hard hats
Another person who spoke to the camera claimed that they managed to film themselves in secret because the guards – whom he said were armed with sticks and swords – had left the area to buy petrol
The second man claimed that the group had offered to pay for their own flights back to India and offered their employers to keep the salary arrears, but the offer was allegedly declined
"(They responded that) if this is how we wish to leave, then we cannot walk out alive. You can only return (home) as a corpse. This is how they threatened us," he said
The man also claimed that a manager was currently being kept in isolation and threatened with violence if the workers made mistakes
"You must help rescue us, we don't know any other way," said the man. - Mkini

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