Migrant workers in limbo at Kuala Lumpur airport waiting for employers to collect them

Kuala Lumpur: Thousands of migrant workers are being forced to camp for days in a stuffy car park at the airport in Malaysia's biggest city, sleeping on the floor surrounded by garbage and urine, while they wait for their new employers to collect them.
Every day, more than 1,000 migrant workers arrive at the Kuala Lumpur international airport, with the number swelling to 3,000 at the weekend, said Saravana Kumar, deputy head of immigration at the airport during an interview last week.
Most of them arrive from Bangladesh, and a few from Nepal, Pakistan, India and other countries, eager to join a burgeoning labor force of menial workers, such as carpenters, cleaners, security guards, waiters and shop clerks who help keep Malaysia's economic success humming.
But complaints that migrants were loitering among tourists at the pristine airport, sprawling about with their piles of scruffy luggage, prompted authorities to set up a makeshift immigration processing center in the airport's multistory car park, Saravana said.
The processing center was meant to facilitate a speedy processing — within eight hours of their arrival — and enable immigration officials to keep track of everyone in one place. But some workers are forced to spend several nights in the car park because their employers or agents are either late to collect them, or do not show up at all, Saravana said.
23/09/07 The Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, France

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Categories: Airports Sep 2007, Foreign Sep 2007