Members of the Bangladesh Civil Society for Migrants (BCSM), a platform of 23 organizations working on immigration, have demanded to uphold the rights of Bangladesh migrant workers in Malaysia who do not have any work.
The organization also has expressed concern over the plight of a section of Bangladeshis who have gone to Malaysia for work after 2022 through syndication.
The organization observed their suffering with concern for the past few months.
The consequences of sending workers through syndication, which BCSM had previously identified and expressed concern about, have been occurring since the start of sending in Malaysia from2022.
Additional immigration costs and the issue of workers not being able to find work have become widespread over the past few months, according to BCSM.
According to official sources, more than 400,000 Bangladeshis have gone to Malaysia since 2022 through the syndicate system of recruiting agencies.
According to various media reports, currently around 100,000-200,000 Bangladeshis are staying in the country unemployed or without salary or underpaid and in debt.
At least 100 Bangladeshi men working at a company called Pembinan Ricoller Sdn Bhd are living in inhuman conditions. For three months, they were short of food, shelter and even a toilet. The Ministry of Human Resources of Malaysia rescued them in the last week of February this year after receiving information from rights activists. Along with this, the company has also been blacklisted, and actions will be taken against it under the country’s Human Trafficking Act, according to a report published in Dhaka Tribune on February 28.
Human rights organizations based in Malaysia and the country's government have taken several steps in the past few months based on various news reports of Bangladeshi workers' dissatisfaction with not being able to find work in Malaysia.
For example: Malaysian Energy SDN BSD has been sued by the country's Labour Court to pay half of the workers' salaries immediately and pay the due money in the future.
“ We have noticed that some syndicated recruiting agencies in Bangladesh have sent workers to some companies in Malaysia that do not have the capacity to hire workers and in some cases no company by that name exists.”
Also thousands of Bangladeshi workers have paid lakhs of money to recruiting agencies to go to Malaysia and are waiting for months for visa stamping/e-visa with calling visa.
In such cases, the respective recruiting agencies should hold the governments and companies of those countries accountable.
The BCSM has demanded action against them.
Secondly, the Labour Wing of the Bangladesh Embassy in Malaysia has been urged to perform their responsibility more carefully to verify and approve demand letters of various companies.
At the same time, if the workers are cheated, then the responsible institutions of both countries must also ensure that measures are taken to take responsibility.
Above all, the sincerity and sympathy of the Malaysian government currently in power under the leadership of Anwar Bin Ibrahim towards the Bangladeshi workers has been observed at various times.
Using this opportunity, Bangladesh was requesting the government to continue regular communication with the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs and Human Resources and all kinds of diplomatic activities for the immediate resolution of this situation - to reduce the suffering of Bangladeshi workers as soon as possible and to establish full salary, better accommodation and other labour rights.
Due to the severity of the situation, the Malaysian government has announced to stop hiring foreign workers from May 31, 2024.
As a result, the problems of Bangladeshi workers including losing their jobs, not getting paid, being unregistered and living an inhumane life will increase.
“We demand the government to consider this issue and take the initiative to solve it immediately. Apart from this, we strongly demand a quick and sound solution through bilateral discussions on the issues of job loss, unregistered workers and workers living inhumane lives.”
In view of this recent incident, the government will be aware of the disadvantages of sending workers through the syndicate system and take necessary steps to ensure that such a recruitment system does not repeat itself in the future like 1997 and 2007.
