He could hardly imagine he would make the news by being humiliated for sleeping outside a bank in Kuala Lumpur.
All he had sought was a life that would enable him to feed his wife and two sons, aged 11 and eight, and lift his family out of poverty.
Instead, the 39-year-old ended up sleeping on the five-foot-way, going hungry, and finally being humiliated in front of a bank, by being kicked and splashed with water.
“If they would have only told me to leave, I would have gone quietly. I was very weak, hungry, stressed, and depressed,” Safiudeen told FMT, breaking down in tears while he related his story.
A video clip on the incident brought good samaritan Tony Lian to his rescue, and Safiudeen was taken to a shelter run by Lian.
Safiudeen said he arrived in Malaysia in March last year to take up a job with a restaurant in Sri Gombak, Kuala Lumpur, where he earned a modest wage as a cook.
But his employer withheld his passport and his wages, sometimes for months, Safiudeen said.
He wanted to quit but they would not let him go. They said they still wanted him. Unable to take it any more, he stopped going to work six months ago.
Safiudeen said he had paid RM3,500 for a work permit and RM1,200 for healthcare to his employer, but soon after he started work, his pay was withheld, sometimes for months, and he was unable to send money home.
His wife refused to believe his tragic circumstances when he stopped sending money. “She even thought I had taken on another wife,” he said.
To compound matters, he could not quit and seek another job as his documents were held by his employer. “When I arrived at KLIA, the restaurant boss took my passport and I never saw it again,” he said.
In March this year, his wages were reduced after the employer deducted his salary, once up to RM1,800, on grounds of renewing his work permit, but there was no proof the permit had been renewed, he said.
Safiudeen said he was also told he would have to pay for the RM3,000 airfare if he wanted to return to India, but he did not have the means.
After he stopped going to work, he had nowhere to go and was forced to seek shelter from friends, until they eventually closed their doors to him, leaving him with a cold, hard alternative – to sleep on the five-foot-way.
“I had no food, no roof over my head. Some told me that since I still had hands and legs, I therefore could find work. But without a passport, no one wanted to hire me.”
Fast forward a few months, Safiudeen came across a restaurant, near an AmBank branch in Taman Maluri, Cheras, whose employees were kind enough to feed him. For the next couple of days, he decided to sleep outside the bank, until he was splashed with water and kicked – an incident which was caught on camera.
Lian, who runs two small shelters for the homeless and who came to Safiudeen’s rescue, said businesses must remember that humanity, not profit, defines a country’s character.
He called for compassion when dealing with the homeless.
“When you see a homeless person outside your premises, don’t do what was done to him,” he said, adding that there were NGOs these businesses could contact to help such cases.
Lian, who is known as “Uncle Tony”, said he would ask Safiudeen’s employer to return his passport and other documents. He would also raise funds to pay off his debt.
Despite what he has endured, Safiudeen is neither bitter nor angry. “I want my passport. I just want to work,” he says, breaking into tears once more.