Indian kids among most abused in Malaysia

Children of Indian ethnic origin in Malaysia are one of the most abused in the country, a top official has told the parliament.

Children of Indian ethnic origin in Malaysia are one of the most abused in the country, a top official has told the parliament.

There were 248 incidents of Indian children involved in abuse cases reported to the country’s Welfare Department last year, Chew Mei Fun, Parliamentary Secretary to the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry, told the parliament.

The majority of abuse cases involved Malay children (1,378), said the Parliamentary Secretary.

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She said in 2005, Malay children accounted for 1,116 abuse cases followed by Indians (263), Chinese (245).

Factors cited for the abuse included indiscipline at school, sex, negligence, emotional stress and that the suspect was drunk at the time.

They were part of the 1,999 child abuse cases reported to the department last year compared with 1,800 cases in 2005, she was quoted as saying by national news agency Bernama here. Chew said 173 child abuse cases had already been reported by April this year.

14,000 Indians untraceable

Kuala Lumpur: Indians account for the highest number of foreign tourists who could not be traced after the expiry of their visas in Malaysia, the Home Ministry said. About 25,400 visitors had failed to return to their home countries and out of these about 14,000 had been identified as Indian tourists, the Star newspaper reported. The newspaper did not mention the time period of the tourist arrivals. Since the Malaysian government had introduced the visa-on-arrival facility last year, about 8.32 lakh foreign tourists had arrived in the country.