Bangladesh High Commission officials in Kuala Lumpur said many Bangladeshi migrant workers illegally in Malaysia are unable to get legal status as they do not have police reports which are mandatory for immigration legalisation in the country.
Many migrant labourers earlier failed to obtain their legal status after being cheated by a section of unscrupulous agents and middlemen. Thus, the Malaysian authorities offered a further chance to those foreign workers to apply for legal status between October 21, 2013 and January 21, 2014.
Malaysia’s migration legislation sets three conditions on applicants, one of which is providing a police report lodged between September 1, 2011 and September 10, 2013.
Officials at the high commission said some Bangladeshi migrant workers took advantage of the opportunity, but many of those who did not have the police report failed to validate their status.
Although there is no accurate data as to how many Bangladeshi migrants were cheated, the high commission estimates that around 30,000 migrants were victimised.
“We have requested the Malaysian authorities to lift the condition as many of our workers are unable to legalise their status by producing police reports,” Bangladesh labour counsellor to Malaysia Mantu Kumar Biswas told the Dhaka Tribune over the phone yesterday.
Mantu also said, “The Malaysian government has yet to inform us about the matter.”
After being cheated by the middlemen or agents, the migrants out of fear did not complain to police, and so they did not get police reports, he added.
Around 200 new visas for workers were currently under process and would be issued soon, Mantu said, adding that those who joined work in the plantation sector were doing well.
A migrant worker is earning around Tk25,000 a month, he claimed.
He, however, admitted that a few migrant workers had been suffering some problems, including homesickness.
Under the government-to-government arrangement, over 1,000 labourers have gone to Malaysia, costing them each around Tk30,000.
