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.