Countless millions of Asian women leave their homes to work in foreign countries, and in a quiet dormitory behind the Indonesian embassy are some of the casualties of this mass migration.
Some of them have been beaten, raped or tortured with scalding water and hot irons, and nearly all have been treated like slaves and not paid for months or years of exhausting work.
Now they wait for their cases to be resolved via mediation with resentful former employers, or make their way painfully slowly through Malaysia's court system, before they can return to their villages and towns.
PHOTO: AFP
Malaysia is a relatively prosperous nation whose citizens have come to rely on foreign workers to care for their children, clean their homes and work on plantations.
But every year about 1,000 women come to the barracks-style accommodation built behind the embassy on a main thoroughfare in Kuala Lumpur, along with about 20 newborn babies -- often the product of sexual assault.
"I would tell other girls not to come here -- just look at what happened to me," says Suryani Enas, eight months pregnant after allegedly being raped by a member of a feared volunteer security corps accused of persecuting migrants in Malaysia.
PHOTO: AFP
In a common tale, Suryani explains she ran away from employers who refused to pay her for three years of work, only to find herself in the clutches of the officer who held her captive -- handcuffed and gagged -- for a month.
The case is now before the courts, but it could take years to get a verdict and the 20-year-old is anxious to return to her home in the Indonesian island of Lombok and raise her child the best she can.
"I was forced to be pregnant, and now I'm forced to love the child," she says simply as she holds her swollen belly, smiling bravely despite her ordeal.
The rights group Tenaganita ("Womanpower") says Malaysia is home to some 300,000 foreign domestic workers among a migrant workforce -- both legal and undocumented -- of more than three million.
It argues that foreign domestic workers here are made highly vulnerable by a lack of legal protection which subjects them to any working conditions an employer sees fit.
"We can safely say we are one of the worst states, the country that least protects foreign workers including domestic workers," Tenaganita migrant worker advocate Florida Sandasamy says.
"Domestic workers do not have days off, they can work 24 hours a day -- there are no rules," she says. "There is absolutely no protection for them, because the employment act only goes as far as paying workers their wages."
In contrast, women who come from the Philippines, whose government insists on contracts enshrining regular days off and payment, are rarely victims of abuse and earn up to four times the US$120 monthly wage of many Indonesians.
"Sad to say, Indonesia and the other countries do not share the same policies," Sandasamy says.
Up to 100 women live at any one time at the Indonesian embassy's shelter, a simple but scrupulously clean structure built in 2004 that is one of several around Asia and the Middle East.
Some stay for a few days, some for years.
The women keep themselves busy with washing, cleaning and cooking, but mostly spend their time sitting around quietly, often exchanging their stories of mistreatment at the hands of their Malaysian employers.
Many still bear the scars, scalds and wounds inflicted on them as recently as days before. Most are destined to remain anonymous, but the case of one of them, Nirmala Bonat, has achieved national notoriety.
Photographs of her dreadful injuries, allegedly inflicted by the Malaysian woman she worked for at an upmarket Kuala Lumpur condo, were splashed on the front pages of newspapers when she was discovered in 2004.
The 23-year-old says that after accidentally breaking a mug, she was abused every day until her breasts and back were covered with burns from a hot iron, and her face was swollen by regular beatings.
The alleged culprit has been brought to trial, but three years have gone by and it is nowhere near a conclusion.
"I'm hoping that the whole case is resolved as quickly as possible so I can return to Indonesia," Nirmala says in a voice barely above a whisper.
"I really regret coming here. This was my fate. Some people are lucky and get good jobs, but I was very unlucky," she says before breaking down in tears.
Sandasamy says that the protracted legal process is extremely damaging for women like Nirmala, who inevitably sink into depression as they are forced to put their lives on hold and endlessly relive the trauma.
"Very few cases go to court and the ones that do take a very long time. So where is the state's responsibility? If the employer is not taken to task, they become arrogant and feel they can do anything they want," she says.
Indonesian diplomat Tatang Razak, who heads the embassy's anti-abuse task force, says he can barely believe the treatment meted out to women who end up at the shelter, who also include many victims of sex trafficking.
Newspaper reports detail accounts of women allowed just one bowl of rice a day, allowed only a few hours sleep on the kitchen floor and made to wash dog kennels despite their Muslim beliefs.
Tatang says the situation has improved in recent years as Indonesia has demanded better treatment for its workers, but there are still tensions with the government uneasy about having so many here.
"Previously they welcomed Indonesians to Malaysia -- until 1970 it was very easy to become a Malaysian citizen," Tatang says. "Now that has all changed. They consider there are too many Indonesians. Their economy is advanced and they think they don't need the workers."
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2