A group of 40 Indian migrant workers claimed today that they were issued expired work permits by the Immigration Department despite a High Court order requesting the department to issue them with valid ones.

One of the workers, B Rajakannu, said that in December, the Kuala Lumpur High Court had requested the then director-general (DG) of the Immigration Department, Aseh Che Mat, to issue temporary work permits to the workers to enable them to remain in the country and seek legal employment.

"But we were issued permits not commencing from the date of issue or even the date of the court order," alleged Rajakannu in a written statement.

"On April 19 this year, 13 of us received permits which already lapsed in January and February. The rest received permits that lapsed on Sunday," he added.

He also revealed that the workers paid levy fees amounting to more than RM40,000 to the department before the permits were issued.

"They charged us about RM1,300 each for the permit, and also RM100 each for monthly special passes while waiting for the permits to be issued," he said.

Contempt proceedings

The workers' ordeal began in 1999 when they filed a lawsuit at a labour court against their former employer Gopis Construction (M) Sdn Bhd for failing to pay them their wages.

While waiting for the matter to be solved, the workers sought permits to work with another construction company Central Generative Sdn Bhd.

The High Court then recorded a consent order on Dec 6 last year after the Immigration Department agreed to issue the temporary work permits.

"We made the application in Oct 1999, and it has been more than 20 months.

"We are suffering here without the ability to work legally and earn a living. Our individual debts are also growing," lamented Rajakannu.

According to him, the workers had informed the DG about the expired work permits but are yet to see any action.

Yesterday, the workers filed for a contempt proceeding against the DG for his failure to abide by the High Court's consent order.

The application for leave was filed by their lawyer Charles Hector.

Living in fear

Rajakannu said the workers are living in fear of being arrested as they are now considered as "illegal immigrants".

He said that three of them were detained at the Port Dickson police station between July 2 and 6, but were released after their lawyer intervened and the DG issued them special passes for a month.

"We have been suffering, and this would not have happened had the Immigration Department or the DG told us directly and simply that our applications have been rejected when we first applied in 1999.

"We would have all most likely gone back to India," said Rajakannu.