Some Bangladeshis working for a company in the Maldives have made allegations of mistreatment against their employer to a rights organisation in the South Asian nation.
“They were ill-treated, stripped of their basic rights and forced to work for 13 hours a day,” according to a report by Transparency Maldives.
The report, published on Thursday, said the Bangladeshi workers alleged that they had not been paid for six months.
They repeatedly requested their employer to pay their wages, as they needed money to support themselves and their families back home. But the employer refused to pay, claiming that the company was struggling financially.
Under the circumstances, the workers filed a complaint against the company at the Labour Relations Authority of the Maldives, the report said.
But instead of getting any redress, they were punished by the employer, who cut off electricity from their living quarters.
The report did not name the employer or the company.
Later, the desperate workers approached the advocacy and legal aid centre of Transparency Maldives, an affiliation of the global corruption watchdog, Transparency International.
“We wrote to the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives explaining the situation and asking if a solution could be found,” the rights group said.
The group’s intervention helped to solve the immediate crisis _ electricity was restored within 24 hours to the workers’ quarters.
The HR commission is investigating the case now, and Transparency Maldives is monitoring the situation to ensure that the Bangladeshis get their dues.
However, the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) in Dhaka said it had not received any such complaints from Bangladeshi workers.
“Such incidents may happen when migrants are undocumented,” BMET director Abdul Latif told the Dhaka Tribune over phone yesterday.
He also said the Maldives police were serious about such allegations, and if any get any complaint, they would compel the employer to pay.
Meanwhile, Khondaker Shawkat Hossain, secretary to the expatriates’ welfare ministry, said, “Let me get the information, I cannot tell you anything right now.”
According to BMET, around 30,000 Bangladeshi migrants are working in the Maldive islands.
