Kuala Lumpur, April 7: The number of Indian nationals found misusing their tourist visas and overstaying in Malaysia has doubled in the last six months and the country's Human Rights Commission has called it "a worrying trend".

Human Rights Commissioner N. Sivasubramaniam said many such Indians are ending up in immigration detention camps but did not give any numbers.

He said many of them were being "duped into misusing" their passes for which the blame lay solely with illegal agents, local Tamil language daily Tamil Nesan reported on Monday.

Sivasubramaniam added that illegal agents give them fake working permits and disappear. They convince Indian nationals that they can convert their tourist visas into working permits and earn more money, The Star newspaper said.

Malaysia depends on import of manpower to run its economy but also has a problem of tourists and workers from developing countries staying on illegally to earn money.

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