Monday August 20, 2007
13 tricked by bogus Datuk
BY LEE YUNE YEE
KUALA LUMPUR: They came to Malaysia to work. They were promised bona fide work permits but were given student visas.
They learned too late that their stay here as workers is illegal. However, they dare not quit as their so-called agent here has allegedly threatened to report to the authorities that they are carrying invalid travel documents.
The 13 Chinese nationals – including four men – had allegedly paid RM15,000 each to the agent, who claimed to be a Datuk and a prince from Negri Sembilan, to work in Malaysia as massage workers.
They came to Malaysia in February and were sent to various parts of the country to work in massage parlours, mainly as reflexologists. The student visas given to them were in the name of an education academy here.
On learning that they were holding invalid documents, eight of them lodged police reports. They alleged that the “Datuk” had since been harassing them.
Yang Xiao Jing, 27 said the “Datuk” gave them three conditions to avoid being imprisoned: return to work in Setapak, move to a parlour in Bahau or return to China without a refund.
Three of them have since been sent to Johor to work while two others chose to return to their homeland.
Yang and two others – Jiu Chun Fu, 43, and Huang Li Jian, 35 – managed to sneak out to the MCA public services and complaints department, where they related their grievances to the press.
Department head Datuk Michael Chong alleged that the academy here had conspired with the “Datuk.”
He said the academy is a licensed institute under the National Vocational Training Council.
“We will make necessary arrangements to send them back as soon as possible,” he added.
Asked his next course of action, Chong said he has alerted the commercial crime department.
The fraudster has been identified as a branch leader of a Barisan Nasional component party in Negri Sembilan.
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