Trapped People: A Story of Debt Bondage and Forced Labour
Jointly presented by the Rotary Club of Ipoh South (KRIS) and Perak Caring Society (PCA) while supported by Persatuan Sahabat Wanita Selangor (PSWS), a documentary named “Trapped People” was screened to a small audience to create awareness of the trials and tribulations of migrant workers from Flores, Indonesia to Malaysia’s southernmost state of Johor.
A short film by Mahi Ramakrishnan, this is a story of debt bondage and forced labour, that explores the reasons for this flourishing trade. While abject poverty is the primary cause of these victims seeking greener pastures across the seas, and they willingly pay agents exorbitant sums to undertake this journey, it’s unfortunate that some of them get caught in awful circumstances.
Yet, economic migration for better employment is like a crime; a civil offence when they are somehow made undocumented by unscrupulous third parties such as employment agents and employers, who should be the ones to be prosecuted.
The producer of “Trapped People” is Irene Xavier, a Malaysian human rights activist. She is also the Consultant and Co-Founder of PSWS. She was at hand to answer questions from the floor, along with Mahi.
The forum following the thought-provoking documentary was equally interesting with the points raised by the audience. One of the questions asked was why there is no open policy among ASEAN countries to allow the free movement of people to seek jobs, similar to the European Union.
According to former Sungai Siput MP Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, jobs in this country have to be protected for the B40 community, as these migrant workers are willing to take on the jobs at lower wages.
When asked what she hoped to achieve with her documentary, Mahi said that ordinary citizens should be aware that they have the collective power to make a change for the less fortunate migrant workers by lobbying the government to do the right thing. For the moment, domestic maids are excluded from the employment act and have no access to labour rights.
An officer, while lauding the awareness created by the documentary, gave an insight into the actions that are being taken to protect economic migrants who have fallen into bad hands. Noting that these issues are not only specific to Malaysia or Indonesia, and citing similar incidents at an international level, she shared that Malaysia is on the Tier 2 Watch List of the United States State Department’s annual report on Trafficking in Persons (TIP) 2023, an improvement from the previous report.
