Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
The agency goons however fled when the demonstrating workers counterattacked
at 9:00pm local time, a human rights activist in Malaysia told The Daily Star
yesterday.
<p>The workers said at least 25 of them were beaten on the high commission premises.</p>
<p>Following the incident, the Malaysian police shifted the demonstrators numbering
100 to a safe shelter on Friday midnight.</p>
<p>Labour Counsellor at the Bangladesh High Commission Talat Mahmud however told
private television channel ATN Bangla over the phone that no incident of attack
had taken place.</p>
<p>The workers were on a hunger strike inside the Bangladesh High Commission in
Kuala Lumpur over a wage dispute, saying that they had been promised higher
pays, but were not paid duly by their employers.</p>
<p>Jainal Abedin, one of the workers, told Malaysiakini, a web-based news service,
that they were left with no choice but to go on a hunger strike in order to
get help from the Bangladesh mission.</p>
<p>"We are waiting for death. Four days [without] food. Many [are] sick,"
said Jainal, 25, on Friday.</p>
<p>He said they lost the hope of finding proper employment in Malaysia and want
their high commission to arrange for their passage home.</p>
<p>Jainal also said the workers had been brought to Malaysia in four batches between
February and May this year, with promises of high-paying jobs, but they ended
up doing manual labour in an acid factory.</p>
<p>They were allegedly not paid for six months and fed only one meal a day. The
workers are holding their Bangladeshi employment agent responsible for duping
them.</p>
<p>"We want our money back from [the agent]. We had to sell our goats, cows
and even lands to come here," added Jainal.</p>
<p>Typically, Bangladeshis have to spend about RM12,000 which is equivalent to
Tk 2.3 lakh in order to obtain work in Malaysia.</p>
<p>Human rights lawyer Renuka T Balasubramaniam who represents the aggrieved workers
said a claim for the back wages was filed with the labour department last week
against the workers’ former employers based in Sentul of Kuala Lumpur.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Bangladesh High Commissioner Khairuzzaman told BBC Bangla Service
that they held a meeting with the recruiting agents, workers, and local human
rights activists on Friday, where the mission assured the workers that they
will be given job options.</p>
<p>If the workers do not like to continue working in Malaysia, they will be sent
back home, he said.</p>
<p>"We also kept undertakings from the recruiting agents who had brought
the workers here, and told them that they will be caught if they could not arrange
alternative jobs for the workers soon," Khairuzzaman said.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, AFP reported yesterday that thousands of foreign workers, mostly
Bangladeshis, were forced to camp in the car park of Kuala Lumpur’s international
airport while waiting for their employers.</p>
<p>The immigration department turned a section of the car park into a temporary
shelter for foreigners while more permanent facilities are being built there,
said the report.</p>
<p>An immigration counter was set up to process visas and other paper works for
employers and agents, the report added.</p>
<p>A Bangladeshi worker, Khokon, told the news agency that he had arrived two
days ago with 24 other men who had been told they would be working in Malaysian
factories.</p>
<p>"We have to use our own money to buy food while waiting for our agent
to pick us up," he said.</p>
<p>An agent who came to the airport to collect 50 workers said delays are often
caused by miscommunications between the agents in Malaysia and Bangladesh.</p>
<p>"Some agents had no idea that their workers had arrived, so they were
not here to pick up the workers. Had the agents failed to show up within seven
days of arrival of the workers, the workers would be deported," he told
AFP.</p>
<p><i>Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=4124</i>
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