Kollam: Seven Malayalis, including diploma-holders and B.Tech graduates, have been trapped in a remote island in Malaysia following a recruitment fraud.
They are living inside a container even without food. Nine persons were earlier rescued on the intervention of the Indian embassy and the rest still live there expecting a helping hand from their homeland.
The job-seekers were recruited by agents Vijayan Patros from Kundara and Anil Kumar from Thiruvananthapuram a year back in collusion with Malaysian agent Thyagarajan. They were offered jobs in a power plant in Kuala Lumpur.
"They said they wanted engineers and I gave my documents for a job as fitter. They took Rs 80,000 from me for the visa on July 31 last year. In January, they took us to Chennai for verification. We were taken to Tiruchi and to Kuala Lumpur from there," said Alduvin, 36, of Mannukuzhi Puthenveedu, Mathilil here.
From Kuala Lumpur they were taken to Kuching, a remote island, and were given accommodation in a lodge nearby. There were 16 people altogether, including six from Thrissur.
After two days, they were taken to another place and given a container to live in. They stayed for at least two months doing the jobs of mason and helper. They got their first month's salary of 1,040 Ringgits while the cost of food was deducted. They again worked for more than a month and were expelled from there as they lacked proper work permit.
For the next three months, they had no job. Though they contacted the Indian embassy in Malaysia, the embassy did not take any action for two weeks even though the external affairs ministry had sent messages to help them.
"It took another month for the embassy to help us," said Alduvin.
