Amid rampant job scams, DAP MP urges Putrajaya to freeze recruitment of Malaysian workers to Cambodia

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 3 — Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim Chee Keong has urged the government to stop the recruitment of Malaysian workers to Cambodia until the issue of job scams there is resolved.

Sim said that a moratorium prohibiting companies operating in Cambodia from Malaysian workers should also be imposed until the syndicate behind the scam is completely eradicated.

"The lives of Malaysians should not be put at risk if the Cambodian government is unable to guarantee protection and safety to our people when they are there,” he said in a statement.

Sim also pointed out that the 261 Malaysian job scam victims stranded in Cambodia, who were rescued recently, were only a fraction of the actual number of Malaysians who are victims of job scams in the country.

"There are claims that the actual number of victims among Malaysians has reached thousands of people.

"These individuals are not only victims of kidnapping and human trafficking but media reports revealed that they are also forced to commit fraudulent activities against others,” he said.

Sim said the government has to set up a special mechanism to provide support to victims and their families to ensure that every case can be reported, investigated, and resolved immediately so that the victims can return to Malaysia safely.

Sim also said that the government should take legal action against the local agents who are involved with the syndicates.

"Most job scam cases have a local agent in Malaysia who contacts the victim before the victim is taken overseas,” he said.

Similarly, Sim said action should be taken against job advertisers who display advertisements in the form of job fraud.

It was recently reported that an estimated 3,000 Malaysians have been lured to countries like Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand by human trafficking syndicates offering lucrative jobs and are now stranded there.

The government has set up a special committee after one of the Malaysian victims, 23-year-old Goi Zhen Feng from Ipoh, Perak was found to have died in a Thai hospital last April near the Myanmar border from severe injuries suspected to have been inflicted by the scammers.