HANOI - Sixty-eight Vietnamese workers have been deported from Malaysia following a brawl with Bangladeshi co-workers at a garment factory, the Vietnamese government said today.

Riot police were called in Jan 29 after the two communities attacked each other with clubs, stones and bottles at the plant in Penang, in a dispute over the Chinese New Year holidays.

Local media reports stated that the fracas was sparked when more than 100 Vietnamese workers attacked some 40 Bangladeshis at the entrance of an apartment block that serves as their hostel.

Police arrested 178 Vietnamese workers sent to Penang by Suleco, a Ho Chi Minh City-based labour-export company, said Vietnam's Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (Molisa).

Further probe

An investigation resulted in the expulsion Saturday of 68 of the Vietnamese workers.

Molisa said it was conducting its own investigation to determine if further disciplinary action was needed.

"We have been officially informed of their explusion and we are checking their possible faults in order to regulate this business," said an official at the ministry's department for overseas Vietnamese workers.

After a long test period, the Malaysian government in February 2002 granted official permission to Vietnamese labour-export companies to send workers to the country.

A total 23,455 Vietnamese currently work in Malaysia, a fellow Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member, ministry statistics show. AFP