After this paper’s exposé of the Malaysian human trafficking mafia that had forced Indian workers to slave in a fibre-processing factory, government authorities were forced to intervene and rescue the trapped workers from the factory. The action was taken after local activists and lawmakers took up the cudgels against the exploitation.

Also read: Mumbai man's daring escape from human slavery mafia in Malaysia

On November 7 and November 10, mid-day had published front-page accounts of 27-year-old Lokesh Sapaliga from Andheri and 22-year-old Narender Singh from Punjab. Both had narrated the horror they had encountered at the factory of CM Fibre Processing SDN BHD in Sibu, Sarawak, where they had to toil for 18 hours a day, and were paid a pittance in return. They had told this reporter how they were fed rotten food and were beaten up by the guards regularly. Both had been conned into taking the job on the pretext of working on a ship.