Visa Cancellation as a threat?

Just make sure he has a copy of the details page and employment pass page of his passport on him at all times.

Second, take some time to find another job discretely.

Its bullying - and bullies like to make people afraid and intimidate them. The only way to deal with bullies is to confront them and pay the price, or get out of their way and not let them continue to walk over everyone. They are weak people at heart but powerful when in control of staff.

Thank you Gravitas

Hello Jeff9743,

First of all, retaining someone's passport is illegal in almost every  country in the world and your friend should never have handed his passport over to anyone in the first place. He should demand his employer return the passport immediately and inform him that should he fail to return the document immediately that he will report it to his country's Embassy/Consulate in Malaysia and to the local police.

A passport is, first and foremost, the property of the nation that issues it. The passport holder really only has secondary "ownership" of the document and it is exactly for this reason that it can be cancelled or demanded back by the issuing nation. Also, whether or not the employer will return the passport it should be reported to the Embassy and police at any rate. They will take the appropriate action to prevent the employer from doing this in the future.

Other than that, only a court of law can demand that an individual hand over his/her passport and that is usually only ever done when someone is facing a serious criminal charge and the court deems it necessary to retain the passport in order to prevent flight.

Cheers,
James    Expat-blog Experts Team

James wrote:

Hello Jeff9743,

First of all, retaining someone's passport is illegal in almost every  country in the world and your friend should never have handed his passport over to anyone in the first place. He should demand his employer return the passport immediately and inform him that should he fail to return the document immediately that he will report it to his country's Embassy/Consulate in Malaysia and to the local police.

A passport is, first and foremost, the property of the nation that issues it. The passport holder really only has secondary "ownership" of the document and it is exactly for this reason that it can be cancelled or demanded back by the issuing nation. Also, whether or not the employer will return the passport it should be reported to the Embassy and police at any rate. They will take the appropriate action to prevent the employer from doing this in the future.

Other than that, only a court of law can demand that an individual hand over his/her passport and that is usually only ever done when someone is facing a serious criminal charge and the court deems it necessary to retain the passport in order to prevent flight.

Cheers,
James    Expat-blog Experts Team

Sir James thank you so much for the advice my friend got his passport back. Thank you.