Pan down to boats

Music

01.00.00.00

people fishing

boats on water,

map of Malaysia

McGrath:  Night falls on the Straits of Malacca.  For generations - fishing boats have sailed these waters..  Nowadays, their cargo is human.  Illegal workers bound for Malaysia - just four hours away.

Buses, people getting off buses, people waiting, man coming up to camera

Buses bring the cargo - the potential illegal workers into Dumai.  They come from all over Indonesia.  And the smugglers called 'taekongs' wait to collect their valuable product.

00.54

Group of men, pan to woman in red

Here though, most of the taekongs like to keep a low profile.  We were told that Miss Ina is the head of one of the largest smuggling rings and that she could tell us how the workers get from Indonesia to Malaysia.

Ms Ina:  I don't want this, I will throw this away.

Woman:  Why do Dumai people think you are a taekong?

Woman:  Yes I was a taekong but not anymore.

Ms Ina:  Just go to the island.

Tracking shot in boat, people sitting, smoking, lifting log, pan

McGrath:  So we took the advice of a retired taekong.  Our destination was Rangsang Island.

01.45

down to house

It seems like a quiet sleepy Kampong - but the locals here are third generation smugglers.  Illegal teak trading is the backbone of their business, but they make hefty profits from smuggling people as well.

In this small house, we found half a dozen illegal workers - all desperate to make their fortunes in Malaysia.

02.22

Men sitting on steps, talking to McGrath

Mr. Piago:  In Java working for one day is just enough for food, nothing more.  If I go to Malaysia I can make much more than here.

Mr. Tukiman:  I can earn more money for school for my family and so on.

McGrath:  Piago, Tukiman and the rest of this group have taken a great risk just to get this far.  And they're prepared to risk their lives.  Last year 100 people drowned trying to cross to Malaysia.

02.56

Mr. Tukiman:  Yes, I'm worried, but if I did it legally, it would cost me a lot of money.  I can't afford it, so it's worth the risk.

Rainy weather, man on motorbike

McGrath:  On this island, life and the smuggling business go hand in hand.  There are four taekongs here - all reluctant to admit that smuggling illegal workers is one of their main jobs.

03.34

Finally we managed to track down two of them - here in this modest house.

Mr. Buyung interview

Super:

Mr. BUYUNG

'Taekong'

Mr. Buyung:  On this island, they ask us to take them to Malaysia.  When we want to take the teak to Malaysia, we take these workers with us as  side job.  Sometimes it's 10 or 15 people, sometimes two.  If there are no people, we still take the teak.

Mr. Naha interview

Super:

Mr. Naha

'Taekong'

Mr. Naha:  What is dangerous for me - sometimes it's the weather, the storms.  Sometimes, it's when I meet the navy patrol - but that's my responsibility.  I have to figure the way out.

Aerial roadway

Music

buildings, trucks

slums, building, flag, construction site, workers

In Malaysia it's boom time.  And no where is that more obvious than in the capital Kuala Lumpur.  Big Buildings, big construction, big growth.

04.51

Malaysia is obsessed with becoming a first world country by the year 2020.

And central to this massive boom are the cheap foreign workers.  They're driving the bulldozers, the cranes, the trucks - in fact, they're driving much of the economic growth.

05.12

It's their cheap labour that has put Malaysia where it is today.  There are up to 3 million overseas workers here - about a million are illegal.  Most of them have arrived unaware that they are just fodder for a raging economy.

Interview with Prof Jomo

Super:

Prof JOMO K.S.

Economics, Malaya

Prof Jomo:  There's a real sense in which the leadership of this country is committed to growth almost for it's own sake.  Maintaining this very high level of growth, this would be almost impossible to sustain without inputs, particularly labour inputs.

University

Constructions site, stacked containers, men 

Almost all the construction projects in the city, in the country would grind to a halt without the foreign labour.

and women workers

McGrath:  The working day begins at this building site in Kuala Lumpur.  This is a kongsi, it's what the workers call home.

06.05

In this case, containers stacked on top of each other - they live 8 or 10 to a room and most are illegal workers.  Bribes are common and official raids are rare.

Employers or agents keep the workers as virtual prisoners - telling them that if they leave the site, they risk arrest and deportation. 

06.28

Just after arriving here, it was confirmed that the site was full of illegal workers they didn't want us to see.

McGrath speaking to man on building site

Security Guard:  So we don't allow you to take a look.  I think you should leave the premises.  You must have permission to come in, you must have authority to come in.

McGrath:  Soon after we were forced off the site.

06.53

Prof Jomo walking down road, interview with Prof Jomo

Prof Jomo:  There is very little doubt that foreign workers in this country are super exploited in the sense that they are subjected to poorer remuneration, poorer working conditions. 

There are many instances, many stories of very severe buses by employers, by gents, by supervisors and so on and so forth, some of which have even ended in death.

Deputy Prime Minister walking along

McGrath:  And the Malaysia Government is reluctant to do anything about it.

07.29

gives interview to press

Super:

ANWAR IBRAHIM

Deputy P.M. Malaysia

Anwar Ibrahim:  We cannot complain too much because we do require their services.  There are abuses of course in the process because there are illegal workers coming in.  There have been complaints about the treatment of these workers, so I think these need to be regularised.

Man walking on building site, interview with Ily

McGrath:  29 year old Ily Susanto has just started working at this site.  Illegal for four years, he's now got his work permit papers.

07.48

Ily:  There are a lot of illegal workers here, at night they sleep in the forest.  When it rains they run into the kongsi - they're afraid of the police catching them.  If the police see an Indonesian face they always ask for an ID and we have to pay coffee money of about 50 or 100 ringgit.

Shanty town shots, kids, women and kids, Ily and Catherine walking along path, meet man

McGrath:  Ily lives in one of the many Indonesian shanty towns in Kuala Lumpur.  Illegal workers here are freer than those imprisoned by their employers - but their days are still dominated by fear and suspicion.

08.14

On the edge of the forest, behind the crowded houses, a group of illegal workers have built their shacks.

08.29

Mustaquim has been in Malaysia for eight months and he's starting to regret his decision to come.

Interview with Mustaquim

Mustaquim:  When I was in Kuantan, I didn't get paid for three months and I had to borrow 100 ringgit and I'm still waiting to be paid.

08.44

McGrath:  Mustaquim is too afraid to leave this squatter settlement in case he gets arrested.  He told me that nothing is more frightening than being interrogated by the police.

08.56

Mustaquim:  If I meet the police, I'm so scared that my body starts to shake.  If I can negotiate with the police it's okay, but what I am afraid of is that they will send me back which would be shameful.  And secondly, I'm here with my wife - what will come of us?

Fenced off jail, signs, inmates, guards, inmates

McGrath:  If Mustaqim gets arrested, this is where he'll end up.  Incarcerated in one of Malaysia's eight detention centres for illegal migrants.

09.30

This is the Lenggeng Camp outside Kuala Lumpur - a place that we were not allowed to film or visit.  There are 1600 inmates and a visitor told us that six people had recently died there.

The most damning stories about the treatment of illegal workers in Malaysia come from these detention camps.

Soon after Ily first arrived from Indonesia, he was held in detention for 14 days.

Interview with Ily

Ily:  We eat only three pieces of bread with tea.  If we sleep that's another problem.  They wake us up every two hours.  We have to stand in line and they come to check us to see whether anyone has run away.  That's every two hours, every day.

10.13

Alan:  What if you fall asleep when you're in line, what happens?

Ily:  They will beat us.  I fell asleep while in line and the police beat me twice.

Interview with Irene Fernandez

Super:

IRENE FERNANDEZ

'Tenaganita'

Irene:  I think it's horrifying from the stories and experiences told to us by migrant workers.  I think they live in a very dehumanised condition.

Irene walking with men, interview with Irene

McGrath:  Irene Fernandez and her organisation investigated conditions in the detention centres and claimed that many of them were like modern day concentration camps.

11.13

Today's she's off to court.  The Malaysian authorities claim her allegations are groundless and they've charged her with false reporting.  But she stands by her story.

Irene:  I think it's a way of trying to gag anything negative that can be said about the state and it's actions.  What I made are serious allegations that the government cannot run away from ...

11.37

TV promo, Ibrahim

Music

walks to podium

people listening, walks down, press interview with Ibrahim

McGrath:  Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim launches Malaysia's latest bid for first world economic status - a new financial rating system.

12.12

Malaysia's pride is growing along with it's transformation.  And there's not much room or much time in this booming economy to worry about the foreign workers.

Anwar:  Well, we take a positive view in the sense that the country needs the services of foreign workers but we would like to see happen is proper regulation.

A proper agreement with governments so that they come on a stipulated period and with proper papers and return.

McGrath:  We've visited work sites here, where there are openly many many illegal workers and the employers themselves don't seem concerned about that, they don't seem worried about implementation by the Malaysian authorities.

13.01

Anwar:  There has been enforcement.  I can sight figures, thousands have been deported, hundreds of cases brought to the courts, so I mean it is not a question of condoning such activities, there's no question of our condoning.

McGrath:  But no matter what the Deputy Prime Minister says, the Malaysian Government hasn't shown the determination needed to solve the problem and so the trade in illegal workers continues.

13.27

Interview with Prof Jomo

Prof Jomo:  Well, I think the justification for what is happening is a simple one.  They claim that these workers want to come here. We are not forcing them to come here. 

They choose to come here and it's because it's impossible to keep them out, that we have basically taken an attitude of benign neglect so to speak, except that of course the consequences are not terribly benign.

Boats on water,

Music

men watching,

people riding on boat

McGrath:  Back in Indonesia, it's business as usual.  In fact, this is a hugely successful operation.  Despite the risks of death, exploitation and detention, the illegal workers will keep coming.

14.19

Desperate to achieve massive economic growth, Malaysia is turning a blind eye to an illegal trade it has come to depend on.

ENDS

15.00