24 Indians rescued from traffickers in Malaysia

IPOH - At least 24 Indian men who were found locked up in a house in a Malaysian town have been rescued and two Pakistani men allegedly involved in a human trafficking racket have been detained, a media report said Friday.

Malaysian police found a clue to the Indian men’s detention from an Aug 30 media report from India and rescued the men from Sungai Siput town, 30 km from here, last Monday.

Dzuraidi Ibrahim, chief of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Perak state, Friday said the raid was carried out following a tip-off that the house was used as a transit point for Indian nationals before they were sent to work in a factory in Penang, New Straits Times reported.

“Investigations revealed that the men, aged between 20 and 30, are from Uttar Pradesh. It is believed they came here via Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) four months ago, before being taken by the two Pakistani men to work in a factory in Johor,” he said, adding that they had been promised attractive wages.

Dzuraidi said that upon questioning, the Pakistanis said they asked the Indians to pay RM300 ($96) each for taking them to Penang.

“While the two suspects were sorting out employment for the group, they were kept locked up in the house,” he said.

He said both the suspects, aged 25 and 34, have been remanded for a week and were being investigated under anti-human trafficking laws.

“We will go all out against such activities and stern action will be taken against those found involved in this immoral act.”

Dzuraidi said all the Indians would be kept at the immigration depot in KLIA for 14 days before being sent back to their country.

Authorities say Malaysia is a transit point for international drug and human trafficking. Men looking for jobs are brought here for further transfers to other Southeast Asian countries and to Australia.