Non-tourists and non-students are going to Malaysia on tourist and student visas, which, the Bangladesh mission officials there fear, will seriously damage the Bangladesh labour market.
A senior official said the visas of these people expired soon after arriving, and they were often times caught by Malaysian authorities for overstaying, tarnishing the reputation of Bangladesh, and making it even more difficult for genuine workers to get visas and jobs.
According to officials of the welfare desk at the Shahjalal International Airport, around 200 people who are neither tourists nor students, fly to Malaysia every day on a tourist or student visa.
However, immigration officials claimed that the number was around 50-60 a day.
“We once encountered a person who could not even write the word ‘student,’ but went to Malaysia on a student visa,” an immigration official told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
A few months back, many were barred from going to Malaysia because of their “suspicious” activities, but following a government instruction the bar was later withdrawn.
“We have nothing to do once they file writ petitions with the High Court against the bar,” said the official.
A section of travel and recruiting agencies, along with some officials at the Malaysian High Commission in Dhaka, were responsible for facilitating the illegal act, officials concerned said.
“In Malaysia, we face embarrassment when these immigrants who are not really students or tourists, become illegal after a few months,” Bangladesh Labour Counsellor in Malaysia Mantu Kumar Biswas told this correspondent over phone.
Admitting the situation, Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training Director General Begum Shamsun Nahar said: “We have a taskforce that conducts drives to nab such passengers. Home Ministry and the Civil Aviation Ministry should take steps in this regard.”
“We need to create awareness among people about these ‘students’ who routinely overstay their visas and then often land in jail. If they are aware of the consequences of their activities, they would not spend such a huge amount to fly to Malaysia in the first place,” she said.
Yesterday, coastguards rescued 57 near Kuchbania area under Sabrang union of Teknaf upazila while trying to go to Malaysia illegally through sea.
The Teknaf Station Commander Lt Dewan Rafiqul Alam said the rescued were being trafficked to Malaysia. Upon interrogation, the traffickers would be traced.
According to Bangladesh High Commission in Malaysia, around 400,000 to 500,000 Bangladeshis are currently working there.
Meanwhile, in a nationwide crackdown against unwanted foreigners, Malaysian authorities had nabbed a total of 1,577 foreigners, of whom 275 were Bangladeshis, according to Bangladesh High Commission.
On November 3 last year, a Malaysian English daily The Star reported that thousands of illegal Bangladeshi workers were pouring into the country, aided by unscrupulous Malaysian education centres and human trafficking syndicates.
The report titled “Bangladeshi illegals are flooding in,” read that these institutes and centres even falsify attendance records and provide “progress reports” for the disguised “students” to Malaysian Immigration when the visas need to be renewed.
These syndicates largely prefer to bring in Bangladeshis under the guise of students as they are granted visas for two and six months, compared to only one month as a tourist, according to the report.
Some colleges also provide necessary documents to certify the worker as a “student.” Later these “students” are sent to factories in Selangor, Johor or Perak where they work as a welder or labourer, earning wages of RM30 to RM60 per day.