Reza Mahmud :
A number of Bangladeshi workers have been passing their hard days in Malaysian prisons allegedly due to the illegal activities of their recruiting agencies.
Among them, 14 migrant workers died in last two years, sources said.
“There are numbers of Bangladeshi workers in different jails in Malaysia. Most of them are there due to the violation of laws by their recruiting agencies,” Khabir Hossain, a Bangladeshi working in Malaysia, told The New Nation.
He added 14 Bangladeshi workers have died between 2015 and 2016.
According to the Malaysian Home Ministry, a total of 161 foreign workers died in Malaysian jails in last two years. Among them, 73 from Myanmar, 23 from Indonesia, 14 from Bangladesh. Sources said, many of the workers breach laws of that country which lead them to the jail. Some foreign workers, including Bangladeshis, are allegedly being recruited there with false experience certificates.
The sources said some Bangladeshis have taken jobs after reaching Malaysia with tourist visa, which is illegal according to the law of that country. If any one of them is identified then he must be arrested and punished by the courts.
Many Bangladeshi workers also accused that some officials of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) had given them fake experience and training certificates. “The workers get job with the fake certificates. But when the employers found that the experience and training stated in the certificate is not real they file cases against those workers. Then the court sent them to the jail,” said a managing director of a recruiting agency, preferring anonymity.
It was further alleged that some Bangladeshi students have joined different firms in Malaysia leaving their educational institutes permanently. It was the violation of the country’s law which also led them to jail.
“Around 80 percent Bangladeshi students come here not for study, just to work,” Masum Billah, a Bangladeshi Journalist working in Kuala Lumpur told The New Nation.
Workers from Malaysia accused that some dishonest employers give them low salary and engaged them in risky jobs in collaboration of Bangladeshi recruiting agencies.
But Benjir Ahmed, President of Bangladesh International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) refuting the allegations said that the recruiting agencies always try to protect the interests of the workers. Sources said, there are around ten thousand Bangladeshi workers in jails in 38 countries.
Nurul Islam, Minister for Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment said, “If the workers breach laws in a concern country, they will surely be punished. We always cautioned the migrant workers not to violate the concern country’s laws and rituals.”
The workers in Malaysia alleged that the Bangladeshi High Commission in Kuala Lumpur totally ignores them. They said the officials of the Embassy never listen to their problems. They are always uncooperative.
