A Burmese woman migrant worker is recovering in hospital in Malaysia after allegedly jumping from a second-floor window to escape abductors. The plight of Ma Win Win Maw, 38, highlights the abuses suffered by Burmese women migrant workers in Malaysia, according to the Burma Workers Rights Protective Committee, based in Kuala Lumpur.

Ma Win Win Maw, from Natmauk district in central Burma, traveled to Malaysia with about 70 other Burmese women in 2004 to work in garment factories in Jaho province, an industrial zone in southern Malaysia. They were hired by a Malaysian agent.

Friends of Ma Win Win Maw claim she was abducted by gangsters after complaining to her employer about working conditions. Her sister told The Irrawaddy Ma Win Win Maw was blindfolded and then held prisoner in the building from which she leapt, seriously injuring her back.

Ye Min Htun of the Burma Workers Rights Protective Committee said Ma Win Win Maw had argued with her employer about overtime payments. The employer had threatened to send her back to Burma unless she agreed to do off-duty tasks without payment, Ye Min Htun said.

Such threats were commonly made against Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia, said Ye Min Htun. His committee had received numerous complaints of abuses and punishments.

According to Malaysian government statistics, there are about 1.8 million foreigners working legally in Malaysia. Most of them are from Indonesia, Burma, India, Bangladesh and China.