Allegations on migrant worker deaths inaccurate, say cops

 

Police deny preliminary findings in a report claiming that employers often pay off authorities to classify migrant worker fatalities as ‘sudden death’.

PETALING JAYA: Findings and allegations that migrant worker fatalities are categorised as “sudden death” without further details are inaccurate, police said.

Bukit Aman criminal investigation department (CID) director Abd Jalil Hassan said strict procedures were followed whenever a death occurred.

“A post-mortem will determine whether there was any criminal element involved or whether it was due to natural causes. It will determine the course of police investigation as to whether it is murder or sudden death,” he told FMT.

He was responding to the preliminary findings in the Labour Law Reform Coalition’s (LLRC) Occupational Health and Safety Report 2022 citing union leaders as claiming that employers often paid off the authorities to classify migrant worker fatalities due to exhaustion and other work-related maladies as “sudden death” to avoid further scrutiny and accountability.

Abd Jalil Hassan.

“In every sudden death case, the next of kin has the right to be informed of the outcome of the case when the police investigation is completed,” Jalil said.

He added that all inquiries into deaths were conducted under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).

“Hence, the findings and allegations (in the report) are inaccurate,” he said.

Earlier today, a senior analyst at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, Tashny Sukumaran, said the report determined that 64.2% of deaths of migrant workers over the last two years were categorised as “sudden death” without further details. - FMT