‘Mother, we have all been arrested... save me, I am afraid.’
YUSUF ISLAM ABDUL HALIK, one of 47 Malaysians duped by a ‘recruitment agency’, and now languishing in a Cambodian jail for alleged involvement in an online gaming syndicate
THEY were promised high-paying jobs in Cambodia, but instead were duped by a “recruitment agency”, believed to be a front for a human trafficking syndicate, and are now languishing in jail several hundred kilometres from Phnom Penh.
The Malaysians, including nine women, were detained on Dec 11 in Poipet, a city in Banteay Mancheay province on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital, for allegedly being members of an international online gaming syndicate.
However, the Malaysian embassy in Cambodia found that the Malaysians, aged between 19 and 44 — and mostly from Sabah and Sarawak — had been waiting for legitimate jobs.
Julau member of parliament Larry Sng, at a press conference here, said 44 of them were from Sarawak.
He said their arrests were only known when a Cambodian newspaper reported about it.
“Most of the Sarawakians are Iban, who, like the others, were enticed by the promise of highpaying jobs. They were cheated by the recruitment agency, which we believe is run by a human trafficking syndicate, which targets those from rural areas,” he said.
“We have received information that they were brought to Cambodia in stages and were charged between US$100 (RM407) and US$200 each by the syndicate. We don’t know what kind of work they were promised, but they were guaranteed high-paying jobs.”
Sng said he, Lubok Antu member of parliament Jugah Muyang, Sarawak PKR adviser Datuk Seri Hafsah Harun, Sarawak Dayak Iban Association representative Sidi Munan and Sarawak Dayak Graduates Association representative Dr Dusit Jaul would try to help the Malaysians detained in Cambodia.
Sng said the group had begun efforts to help the Malaysians as soon as they were informed of the matter by family members.
“We were told that these young Malaysians were placed in private homes as soon as they arrived in Cambodia. After a while, they became a little worried as they had not yet been given the jobs they were promised,” he said.
“Then, on Dec 11, they were arrested by the Cambodian authorities on charges of being involved in an online gaming syndicate.”
He said they were now being held at a detention centre about 446km from Phnom Penh.
“They have not been produced in court, whether to be charged with any crime, or even to be remanded. We understand that the Cambodian authorities can hold them for up to three years without a charge.”
Sng said the Malaysians did not have the means to face the intricacies of the Cambodian bureaucracy and their families were placing their hopes on the federal government to get them out.
Sources said Malaysian embassy officers, on hearing about the arrests of the 47, had gone to the detention centre to check on their condition and offer help. One source said this was when the officers learnt what had happened.
He said checks conducted by the embassy showed that the Malaysians came from poor families and had pinned their hopes on getting high-paying, legitimate jobs in Cambodia, based on what the recruitment agency had told them, so that they could help their families.
“We have not ruled out the possibility that they are victims of a syndicate operated by Chinese citizens... the recruitment agency may be a front for human trafficking. Efforts are being made to free the Malaysians and bring them home as soon as possible,” said the source.
The embassy in Cambodia has since briefed the Foreign Ministry, and it is understood that Wisma Putra is working with the Cambodia Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ministry to settle the matter.
The Cambodian embassy in
Kuala Lumpur did not respond to requests for comment.
An embassy official, who did not want to be identified, claimed it did not know anything about the matter. Page 1 pic: Zunita Sedini showing a poster of her son, Yusuf Islam Abdul Halik, who is being detained in Cambodia, in Kuching yesterday.