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?
Starting from the rural and urban brokers, the recruiting agents at home and
the outsourcing or recruiting agents abroad, their sub-agents or brokers and
the employers — all take the best out of the workers who sell cows and land
and even borrow at high rates to raise money for a dream job.
<p>The state, which is ultimately responsible to protect its fellow citizens,
also seemed to be helpless in bringing an end to gross violations of the workers’
rights that has been going on in Malaysia since the manpower export began in
a fresh manner last August.</p>
<p>Only one example of the Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia very well illustrates
a picture of how desperate they could be for their due rights. The workers who
went on hunger strike for five days until last Friday said they wanted to die
but would not return to their workplaces where their employers gave them only
one meal a day and lower pay for longer hours than what they were promised.</p>
<p>This is however not an isolated incident. There were a number of reports published
by the media that apart from violating such job contracts, the outsourcing companies
hired more workers and hid them in the closed buildings and even in the jungles.</p>
<p>Experts in the manpower business said such incidents of low pay and violation
of contract take place as some recruiting agents and their brokers exaggerate
the salaries and other facilities when they woo the workers before they leave
for the overseas workplaces.</p>
<p>"The recruiting agents while dealing with hundreds of workers’ recruitment
issues also do not check the job contracts on one-to-one basis. On the other
hand, there are also workers who just believe the words of the agents about
their jobs and salaries," said a recruiting agent.</p>
<p>Thus, when workers find that they are not getting the salaries as promised
or are forced to work for longer hours, they usually get agitated.</p>
<p>"The salary we get could be enough only for our meal and pocket money
here. We spent Tk 2.3 lakh. What shall we send home?" one of the 121 workers
demonstrating in the premises of Bangladesh High Commission asked when he was
interviewed by BBC Bangla Service last Saturday.</p>
<p>A migrants’ rights organisation working in Malaysia, Tenaganita, recently conducted
a survey on Malaysia’s recruitment process of Bangladeshi workers, and blamed
the outsourcing system, saying that this leads to a situation where the workers
become just like victims of trafficking.</p>
<p>As per the Malaysian rule, outsourcing companies can hire workers from Bangladesh
through recruiting agencies of Bangladesh. These companies sign contracts with
the principal companies (factories or farms) to supply workers, and are responsible
for the workers’ salaries, lodging, transport, medical expenses, and insurance.</p>
<p>There were, however, a number of cases where the workers complained that the
companies did not pay them in due time and deducted money on various charges
like electricity, water, medical, and meal.</p>
<p>"For no reason, the authorities deduct money from salaries. They even
deduct as fine the price if a small part of a machine is destroyed," a
written complaint of a group of exploited workers to Bangladesh High Commission
said in June.</p>
<p>"According to our job contracts signed in Bangladesh, our basic salary
was fixed at 18.50 Ringit, but on arrival in Malaysia, we had to sign a new
contract form that fixed the daily basic salary at 15 Ringit," the complaint
added.</p>
<p>The organisation that found massive irregularities in the outsourcing system
reported that the outsourcing companies had to pay between 1,500 and 2,000 Ringit
(Tk 30,000 to Tk 40,000) to the Malaysian Home Ministry and spend 1,000 to 2,000
Ringit (Tk 20,000 to Tk 40,000) as "lobbyist fee."</p>
<p>Tenaganita, which conducted the survey report after interviewing 150 jobless
and stranded workers and studying 36 cases of the workers, also said around
1,000 workers had been stuck in various places in western Malaysia in May/June
this year.</p>
<p>A human rights activist in Malaysia said the outsourcing companies hire more
workers than that of the actual demand of the factories or farms or hire workers
against fake demand letters, which leads to such a situation.</p>
<p>"The Bangladesh High Commission that inspects the workplaces must have
made mistakes in inspecting factories for which the outsourcing companies got
scope to cheat the workers," he said.</p>
<p>The newspapers, including The Daily Star, also reported several times of incidents
that Bangladeshi workers got stuck at Kuala Lumpur International Airport for
weeks which was again proved by a report of a Malaysian newspaper, The Star,
that thousands of foreign workers, mostly Bangladeshis, were forced to camp
in a car-park at the airport as their employers did not pick them up.</p>
<p>Around 400 Bangladeshis were also deported from Kuala Lumpur due to mismatches
of their fingerprints, but the government is yet to find out any reasons behind
it.</p>
<p>While such are the circumstances with regard to manpower export in Malaysia,
the government, which takes pride in sending more workers abroad in short time
and of swelling foreign exchange reserves, has not taken any significant actions
to bring an end to violations of the workers. Since August last year, over 150,000
workers have gone to Malaysia.</p>
<p>Acting secretary of the expatriates’ welfare ministry, Abdul Matin Chowdhury,
however said a government delegation led by him earlier visited Malaysia and
held talks with Malaysian home and labour ministries. "We are now again
going to Malaysia to find reasons behind repeated incidents of such nature.
The Malaysian home minister is also coming early next month, which proves that
they are also interested to solve the problems arisen."</p>
<p>Let us hope that the latest efforts bear fruit. The plight of our overseas
workers has gone unredressed far too long.</p>
<p><b>Porimol Palma is Staff Correspondent, The Daily Star.</b></p>
<p><i>Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=4350</i>
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