KUALA LUMPUR: In support of Plantation and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani's suggestion, a former member of Parliament has added his voice to the chorus.
Former Klang MP Charles Santiago has endorsed the proposal, urging the government to impose substantial fines on companies guilty of misleading foreign workers with false job promises.
Santiago, however, took the proposition a step further, recommending a higher fine of at least RM50,000 to be levied against each unscrupulous company for every deceived worker.
He explained the fines should cover not only the amount paid by the foreign workers to the agent in their home country but also the loss of wages and arrangements for the duped workers to return to their home country.
"The amount of the fines should also take into consideration the interest rate of bank loans applied by foreign workers to pay the recruitment fees to the agents in their home country.
"Based on my experience handling cases related to foreign workers being duped, they will usually make bank loans since they are required to pay between RM20,000 and RM30,000 to their agents.
"In some occasions, they are also subjected to paying interest (on the loans they applied to pay the recruitment fees)," he said.
Compounding the situation is that the foreign workers did not get a job or were not paid when they arrived in the country.
"And again, they have to borrow to pay back. So that is also a cost for them," Santiago said.
On Thursday, Johari proposed that companies be fined up to RM30,000 for each foreign worker brought in who is not employed after a month.
Strict punishment, Johari said, would force companies to reconsider bringing in workers if they could not guarantee employment.
When questioned about companies selling quotas of foreign workers to other businesses, Santiago affirmed that it indeed amounted to human trafficking.
According to him, this aligns with the provisions outlined in the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act (ATIPSOM) and is equivalent to exploitative practices resembling slave labour.
He shed light on the distressing situation, emphasising that foreign workers were initially brought into the country to contribute their labour to one specific factory but were denied their rightful wages.
"And then, they went to another factory but again suffered a similar fate when they were not paid. So this means that the foreign workers were working for free," he said.
Santiago went on to say: "On top of that, these foreign workers (who were duped into forced labour) could not pay back the money that they borrow either from the banks or their friends in the home country (to pay the recruitment fees to their agents)."