CHENNAI: The Union Labour Ministry has blacklisted 117 companies based in Malaysia on charges of taking jobseekers for a ride with false promises on salaries and work conditions. The most affected people are the semi-skilled and unskilled workers such as domestic helps and plantation workers.

City-based non-governmental organisation `Arunodhaya-Migrants Initiative' on Friday released a book with details of the blacklisted foreign employers and authorised job recruitment agencies.

Arunodhaya's coordinator for the project Bernard D'Sami said the book would come in handy for thousands of job seekers who were easily being lured with lucrative offers. "It is imperative that jobseekers go through the list [of companies] before applying for jobs. There are hundreds of people detained by authorities in some of the foreign countries because they have been exploited and left without valid documents." The Labour Ministry's Protector of Emigrants, G. Parthasarathy, whose office is situated at the Tamil Nadu Housing Board Shopping Complex in Ashok Nagar, released the book.

Mr. Parthasarathy, who is in charge of clearing emigration checks for workers leaving from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Pondicherry, said that several companies in Malaysia were gaining notoriety for offering false promises to jobseekers. "There are instances where the companies offered factory jobs such as welders and fitters but forced the emigrants to work in plantations."

The number of unskilled and semi-skilled workers leaving Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Pondicherry for jobs abroad has increased from 35,000 in 2002 to over a lakh last year. The Protector-General of Emigrants office has been clearing emigration checks for over 800 passports each day.

Mr. D'Sami said the Malaysian Government had recently pardoned hundreds of workers who were without valid documents and sent them back to their countries. However, there was not much awareness about the kind of exploitation the workers faced since most of them did not talk about it. "Most of these workers carry scars from the exploitation they suffered but prefer to maintain that they lived a normal life. They suffer from psychological problems." Arunodhaya is working with two main clusters of emigrant workers in Kalpakkam and Tutticorin. The organisation can be contacted at the Chennai office: 2374 6450.

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