Since 2012, around 5,000 migrant workers have been sent to Malaysia with jobs in plantation farms under the government to government arrangement.
During this time, some of the workers in Cheras district complained to the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur and the BMET about their employers that they do not pay them properly.
The employers also allegedly do not provide them with the promised job facilities including gas and water in accommodation, and free oil and rice. Conversely they have also been given tough tasks and a short amount of time to completed them.
The Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) received such complaints, confirmed a senior official, seeking anonymity, since he was not authorised to speak to the media.
The BMET sends the workers under the government to government arrangement which commenced following an agreement signed on November 26, 2012.
Recently a worker from Cheras described to the Dhaka Tribune the ordeals they have been facing at the workplace. He said there were 10 Bangladeshis working at the farm.
When contacted, Labour Counsellor in Kuala Lumpur Mantu Kumar Bishwas admitted that some migrants had been facing problems. “We requested the employers to address the woes of the migrants,” he added.
When a nine-member delegation led by Expatriates’ Welfare Secretary Khondaker Showkat Hossain visited Malaysia in July this year to discuss bilateral issues, they informed their counterpart about the complaints.
“During the meeting, the Malaysian officials assured us that they will look into the matter,” a member of the delegation told the Dhaka Tribune.
The Malaysian side even formed a committee to address the workers’ woes, the official said.
However, it is surprising as Khondaker Showkat now denies that he was aware of the complaints and the discussion of July.
“I have not heard such complaints. But I will look into the allegations. Next time, we will meet the workers there and listen to their problems,” he told the Dhaka Tribune on Saturday.
“We have repeatedly contacted the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur but they did not respond,” a worker, Abu Bakar, told the Dhaka Tribune over phone from Malaysia on Friday.
“I cannot make you understand what hardship we are going through. There is no gas and water. The situation has reached such a bad stage that we have no other option but to flee.”
Abu Bakar said 10 workers including Yousuf, Halim and Sohagh from Narayanganj; and Jahangir and Nilu Mia from other districts are working at the farm. All of them are now going through unbearable ordeals.
He also alleged that they were deprived of the five kg rice and five kg oil which were supposed to be given every month as per the job agreement.
“We were supposed to be given 900 ringgit a month, but the employer is only giving us 700 ringgit,” he said adding that the manager at the farm was very cruel.
“When the manager changed, the new manager gives us odd work. He sets tough and impossible targets and orders us to finish them in time,” Abu Bakar said.
Programme Manager of the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) Merina Sultana said they had not got any such complaints from the workers in Malaysia.
The BMET team designated to look into the workers in Malaysia should examine the issue after meeting the affected workers.
She suggested that the workers should be informed about work environment and job responsibilities before they are sent to Malaysia.
