Malaysia Police Arrest 44 Nepalese Workers for Rioting

Malaysian police have arrested 44 Nepalese workers after some 500 migrant workers rioted, set fire to an electronics factory and attacked officers, a senior security official said Wednesday.

Mohamad Idris Samsuri, local police chief in southern Johor state said the workers initially went on strike early Tuesday to express their dissatisfaction over working conditions but their action subsequently turned violent.

"The management and the police held talks to resolve the misunderstanding but it failed. The workers then turned violent and aggressive in the late evening. They burned part of the two-story factory producing hard-drives," he said.

"We had to use water cannon to disperse them but some retaliated by throwing stones and we were forced to fire teargas," he added.

Mohamad Idris said about 125 police personnel including members of the anti-riot unit were deployed at the factory to chase away the rioters. The factory employed about 1,600 Nepalese workers.

During the incident, the workers also stoned the office section of the factory and burned a car, he said.

Mohamad said operations of the factory have been suspended pending an investigation into the cause of the rioting.

Malaysia, Southeast Asia's third largest economy, is one of Asia's largest importers of foreign labor, mostly from neighboring Indonesia, Bangladesh and other regional countries.

But foreign workers often are abused with long and poor working conditions and often do not enjoy labor laws protection.