KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Good news awaits the 43 Indian nationals who have been languishing in an Immigration detention depot for nearly two months.

A day after the Malaysian Trades Union Congress highlighted their plight, the Immigration Department said it would facilitate their return home in a week's time.

In a press statement issued on Saturday, Immigation director-general Datuk Mahmood Adam said that the 43 were in good health and that their employer had purchased flight tickets for them.

He added that another eight Indian nationals, who were part of the group and who were not detained, were making a claim against their employer for unpaid salaries.

"They have been issued a special pass while waiting for their case to commence."

On Thursday, MTUC secretary-general G. Rajasekaran said the 51 Indian nationals were duped by their Johor-based manpower outsourcing agency into working illegally for five months last year without wages.

They were also made to pay to the agency more than RM10,000, supposedly repatriation fees, while in detention.

The 51, aged between 23 and 35, had been hired in July 2005 as general workers for factories in Johor on a three-year contract.

On Jan 17, the workers took a bus from Johor to come here to seek help from the Indian High Commission but were rounded up by police on the way.

While 43 were sent to the depot, the eight who were released sought the help of the MTUC.

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