Indon hostel riot: Another 17 held
Some 400 Indonesian textile workers staged a violent rampage Thursday in central Negeri Sembilan after police tried to detain 16 of their co-workers for drug abuse.
The rioters overturned vehicles and then retreated to their hostel from where they jeered at police and threw chairs, tables, bottles and stones.
Eleven Indonesians were eventually detained by police for suspected drug abuse after a tense stand-off and intervention by Indonesian embassy officials.
Negeri Sembilan police chief Mohamad Yunus Othman said that another 17 Indonesian workers were detained yesterday, of whom 14 surrendered voluntarily.
Police were on the lookout for two more workers, he added.
Meanwhile, more than 200 workers at the textile factory have kept to their hostel and refused to report for work amid fear of detention in connection with the riot.
Indonesian embassy officials have intervened and are still negotiating with the workers for them to return to work, reports said.
Other countries first
The governent has said it would tighten requirements for hiring foreign labour and place Indonesian workers last on the list of desirable entrants after the riot.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has said the government would give priority to workers from countries other than Indonesia.
The incident came just over a month after more than 2,000 illegal immigrants, including 1,560 Indonesians, rioted at a detention centre and torched a section of their quarters to escape deportation.
