KUALA LUMPUR, Nov. 29 -- A viral video of a man being kicked and splashed with water while sleeping on a five-foot-way has sparked outrage and highlighted a story of shattered hopes.

For Safiudeen Pakkeer Mohamed, 39, this public humiliation was the cruel culmination of a Malaysian dream that had turned into a nightmare.

"If they would have only told me to leave, I would have gone quietly," he told Free Malaysia Today.

"I was very weak, hungry, stressed, and depressed."

Safiudeen arrived from Tamil Nadu in March of last year with a simple goal: to earn a living as a cook and lift his wife and two young sons out of poverty. But his dream quickly soured.

He claims his employer at a restaurant in Sri Gombak confiscated his passport upon...