A team sent by the Star Media Group’s Bahasa Malaysia news portal mStar Online, found many of these Malaysians stranded and destitute. Among those the team met were Malaysians who had suffered permanent disability after workplace accidents and some who were broke and homeless after being fired by their employers.

The team visited Itaewon in the central region and Daeso and Muguk in Eumseoung district, about 80km from Seoul.

According to The Star, these Malaysians had gone to South Korea lured by job advertisements that claimed they could make good money. They paid recruitment agents thousands of ringgit in fees and entered the country on tourist visas.

Unfortunately, like some workers from other nations who come to Malaysia seeking employment, these Malaysians found that the reality did not meet the promises made.

The report quoted a Malaysian who wanted to be known only as Farhan as saying he and two friends had been homeless for more than two months after being fired without pay from a seaweed processing company. They had just worked there a week earlier.

“I was fired because I came down with fever a week after starting work. We have to rely on our friends for food,” The Star quoted him as saying. He said they sometimes only had biscuits to eat. On weekdays they stay at a friend’s house but on weekends they sleep at the Seoul Central Mosque.

When the mStar Online team visited the mosque, it found several bags along the corridors, believed to belong to foreign workers who slept there.

Another Malaysian told the team she had to live in one house with 18 others. The woman, who works on an onion and sweet potato farm, said the house was so overcrowded that some of them had to sleep in front of the toilet or on the kitchen floor.

She and her housemates said there had been cases of Malaysians being physically abused if they did not work fast enough. Other Malaysians confirmed that because of their illegal status they were often exploited, and made to work long hours without rest and barred from talking to their colleagues.

Some employers would hold back their pay, as they felt the illegal Malaysian workers would not dare go to the authorities. The report said many Malaysians there suffered in silence as they feared being detained by the South Korean authorities.