Hospitality management student recounts Malaysia ordeal

“Since I did not have my passport in hand, I was arrested by immigration officers on the night of March 15 while travelling in Kuala Lumpur. I was in their custody until March 26 when I was produced before a judge. While in custody, I had notified a batchmate about my arrest and I asked her to inform ASS. I don’t know who gave my passport to the Malaysian authorities. But it later turned out that my visa was fake and I was sentenced by the judge to one month in Kajang Prison, after which the immigration office transferred me to Semenyih detention camp until I had a return ticket to India,” said the victim.

The victim said, “I starved for almost six months and it became even harder for me since I am a vegetarian and cannot eat meat. I shared small quarters of space in jail with about 130 persons, and there was hardly any place to sleep.” The victim was finally deported to India on June 26 this year.

The victim said that even before his arrest, he faced a lot of hardships. He was left without a job since December 2013, as the hotel where he got the placement did not require his services. He lived in the company’s guesthouse in Kuala Lumpur, but had to soon vacate it.

“I asked my father for Rs 50,000 in January under the pretext of expenses and tried to bribe an ASS agent for my passport. The agent accepted the money, but refused to give my passport. We then got into a fist fight and I left the company’s guest house. I did not have money, a roof and my passport. I stayed on the streets till my arrest,” claimed the victim.

The victim said he approached the Indian High Commission in Malaysia in January, but they could not offer him any help to return to India as he did not have any photo ID proof. The blacklisting of the agency subsequently led to the students’ contracts being abruptly terminated by their respective hotels.

mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com