Three Indians bound for Thailand end up in Malaysia
Three men from India, aspiring to work in Thailand, have ended up in Malaysia after apparently being smuggled there.
Three men from India, aspiring to work in Thailand, have ended up in Malaysia after apparently being smuggled there.
The three - identified as Shiva Kumar, Rajesh Kumar Chettai and Nabin Saba, all from Darjeeling believe they have been duped and smuggled in from Thailand into Malaysia by a syndicate.
"We asked their agent in Calcutta to look into the matter, who in turn referred to another agent here who promised to take them back to Thailand, but that has not happened," an Indian High Commission Official told PTI.
The High Commission is looking into the matter and has, meanwhile, referred them to Tenaganita, a non- governmental organisation which looks into cases of foreign workers.
The three have Thai visas in their passports but do not have any Malaysian visa.
According to Rajesh, the three men approached the same agent in India to find them jobs in Bangkok. They allegedly paid the agent 70,000 rupees each to cover air tickets, visas work permits and accomodation.
However, on reaching Bangkok they had to wait for two months with no work. Rajesh claimed the agent asked them to be patient and later sent them with a Thai man who drove them out of Bangkok, treated them to lunch and dropped off at a block of apartments where they were introduced to a Nepali national.
"We did not know we had arrived in Butterworth in Malaysia. We realised we were in Malaysia only when we tried to exchange some currency and ended up with ringetts instead of Thai baht," Shiva told the 'Malay Mail' daily.