Migrant workers are the fuel driving the electronics boom, yet some face exploitation, poor living conditions, curtailed freedom and harassment

When it comes to electronics, what Malaysia makes matters. According to a 2014 study “virtually every device on the market today” – from tablets to laser printers to microwaves – is likely to have involved Malaysia in some way.

Once a colonial outpost, the country has radically transformed itself into a key player in the global manufacture and trade of advanced electronics. The south-east Asian nation hosts more than 5,000 international businesses from 40 countries, thanks to 500 nationwide industrial estates and “free zones” for trade.

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Malaysia has rebranded itself as a “heaven for foreign companies”, describing itself as “cost-competitive”, “pro-business” and “market-oriented”.

But these company-friendly policies come with a major human cost, said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Asia.

“Many of those working on the factory lines are migrant workers brought to the country on the promise of decent work but who are facing a system of exploitation that has deepened and expanded over the years,” he said.

“While a lot of this might look like normal work, when you consider the position that many of these workers are in, where they have paid extortionate fees for their jobs, have had to work as long as three years to pay off that debt, and have no access to personal identification documents or any control over terms or conditions of work, then this isn’t decent work – it is akin to modern slavery.”

Migrant workers are the fuel driving Malaysia’s electronics boom. Campaigners believe that as much as 40% of Malaysia’s workforce is made up of migrant workers, up to a third of whom are undocumented.



Many global brands operating in the country rely on subcontractors or third-party recruiting agents to fill factories with workers.

“Malaysia is one huge assembly plant,” said Bruno Pereira, of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress. “The who’s who of the electronics industry is here, yet the labour supply companies and subcontracting companies are a law unto themselves. There is no minimum wage, no overtime rate and no inspection. They operate under the radar.”

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A 2014 report by supply chain specialists Verité found that as many as one in three foreign workers in Malaysia’s electronics sector were working under conditions of forced labour. It concluded that poor living conditions, unlawful passport retention, deceptive recruitment, huge debts, no freedom of movement and penalties for leaving a job before the contract ends are just some of the conditions many workers face.

Forced labour has also been well documented in other sectors in Malaysia from domestic work to construction, agriculture, manufacturing and mining (an industry that actually depends on North Korean slave labour).

Migrant workers are routinely harassed by Rela – an armed paramilitary civilian volunteer corps with nearly 4 million members nationwide – who are granted “certain powers” by the government to tackle illegal immigration.

Complicated and outdated trade union laws mean that Malaysia has still not adopted the basic International Labour Organisation convention allowing freedom of association, and legal protection for migrants – should they need it – can be wholly inadequate.



The US State Department, which grades countries according to their efforts to curb trafficking, has repeatedly ranked Malaysia on the lowest level of its Trafficking in Persons (TiP) report, pointing to frequent forced labour, child labour and sex trafficking issues. The discovery last year on the Thai-Malaysian border of mass graves of suspected trafficking victims – who are believed to have been trafficked with the help of corrupt officials – pointed to a worrying level of collusion at the highest level in a country in which corruption among immigration and police officers is already well documented.

In last year’s TiP report the State Department upgraded the country to the “tier 2 watch list”, a move campaigners believe allowed Malaysia to become signatory to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-country trade-liberalisation pact with the US and Canada, among others.

While TPP theoretically prohibits the use of child and forced labour, and promises to combat the trade in goods made by forced labour both inside and outside of TPP , how Malaysian employment law will adapt to these changes – particularly when it comes to foreign workers – is unclear.

In a keynote speech to British investors this year in London, Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, made no mention of any employment changes, nor did he discuss his country’s commitment to human rights.

Instead, he thanked notable UK companies such as Tesco, HSBC, Rolls Royce and BT for investing in the country, and pleaded with those at the Malaysia-UK Investor Showcase to follow their lead.

“Malaysia has built a resilient, sustainable and inclusive economy,” Najib said. “You can count on us as your ideal partner for doing business in the region.”