300 Indonesian workers riot at Malaysian migrant hostel
300 Indonesian workers riot at Malaysian migrant hostel
Associated Press, Nilai, Malaysia
More than 300 Indonesian factory workers rioted on Thursday at a Malaysian hostel for immigrant workers, overturning police vehicles and hurling bottles and stones at officials, police said.
The violence flared shortly after midnight when police tried to detain 16 workers at a textile factory who tested positive for drugs in a urine test, said police in central Negri Sembilan state.
No injuries were immediately reported in the incident in Nilai industrial district, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Kuala Lumpur.
Officials took about one hour to quell the riot, said Razali, a Negri Sembilan police spokesman who identified himself with one name only.
He said the Indonesians overturned a police car, truck and van before fleeing to their five-story hostel, which houses up to 1,500 residents.
The workers also shouted profanities at police and threw chairs, tables, bottles and stones at them, he said.
Officials from the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur were summoned to help calm the workers.
Early Thursday afternoon, the hostel was under heavy guard by more than 200 riot police with rattan canes and hand batons, backed by three trucks mounted with water cannons. The hostel appeared quiet.
"Everything is under control now," Razali told The Associated Press. "Our men are speaking with the workers and there's been no more violence."
The national news agency, Bernama, reported that 14 of the 16 men detained for alleged drug abuse had escaped into the hostel, and police were trying to get the other workers to hand them over.
The urine tests were conducted on about 200 employees working the night shift at the factory after police received a tip-off from unidentified sources that some of them were on drugs.
Malaysia's reputation as one of Southeast Asia's wealthiest countries has lured millions of immigrants over the years seeking work from neighboring Indonesia, the Philippines and other nations.
Many immigrant workers are given temporary permission to work in Malaysia; many more arrive illegally. More than 500,000 illegal immigrants are believed to be in Malaysia.
Authorities recently announced tougher measures to crack down on illegal immigrants, including twice-daily helicopter patrols in several areas and plans to whip people who enter Malaysia without valid papers.