Bangladeshis away from families, in debt, and jobless in a foreign land
Published on: Saturday, January 06, 2024
By:
FMT, Nora Mahpar
For the past four months, 90 Bangladeshi workers who came to Malaysia with the promise of jobs have been cooped up in a shophouse, sharing two toilets among them.
KAJANG: Rahman (not his real name) could only cry as he listened to his mother asking him to send money back to his family in Bangladesh so they could buy food.
He said he was heartbroken, thinking about his two little girls starving in Naogaon, a district in northern Bangladesh, along with his wife and parents.
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He felt all the more overwhelmed as his thoughts shifted to the visits his family receives from money lenders to whom he owes RM20,000 – money that he had borrowed to pay agents so he could get a job in Malaysia.
Rahman left his family of four in September in hopes of earning a better income for them in Malaysia. Before this, the 34-year-old worked as an imam at a local surau, receiving a meagre pay to cover his family’s expenditures.
When agents came to his village one day to recruit workers for jobs abroad with the promise of better salaries, he was quick to jump at the opportunity.
“The agents told me that I didn’t have to be an imam anymore. That coming to Malaysia would mean an easier life. They said we could earn up to RM3,000 a month.
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“Without delay, my family and I decided to borrow money to pay the agents so that I could change my family’s fate,” he told FMT in Urdu through an interpreter provided by Papsma, the national association of private employment agencies.
But four months after arriving in Malaysia, he has yet to start the job he was promised and instead finds himself lying awake every night as he frets over his future.
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The Bangladeshi migrant workers say they are provided just white rice and chapati with dhal for their daily meals.
“I must get a job as soon as possible,” said Rahman, who acts as the imam at his makeshift dormitory during prayer times.
Papsma took FMT to survey the 1,000 sq ft shophouse where Rahman stays with more than 90 other Bangladeshis.
They must share two bathrooms between them, and lack a kitchen and electrical appliances. The shophouse unit is congested and in disarray, raising question marks over compliance with the law on minimum standards of housing and amenities.
Rahman said they have been fed just white rice and chapati with dhal (lentils) for the past four months.
“Since coming to Malaysia, I have not touched a piece of chicken or fish,” he added.
The stranded migrant workers remain steadfast in prayer after being duped by the recruitment agents.
His fellow migrants similarly claim they paid about RM20,000 each to agents in Bangladesh to process their entry and employment in Malaysia. However, after arriving here, they were placed in an empty dorm in Kajang and left in the lurch without any jobs.
They claim their passports and other documents were being held by agents in Malaysia, who are fellow Bangladeshi nationals. They also allege that they were told to look for a job on their own if they continue to pressure the agents.
One of the migrants, 33-year-old Rubel, said a friend of his was moved to another dorm in Kuala Lumpur a few days ago after lodging a police report and taking the matter to the labour department.He said about 15 others had also been transferred to other “transits”, but still remain jobless.
Rubel, who speaks Bahasa Malaysia fluently, worked as a lorry driver in Kuala Lumpur for seven years but was sent home in 2022 for not possessing a valid work permit.
“This time, I came the proper way, but the agents cheated me,” he said, adding that he also borrowed money from moneylenders to pay the agents.
During FMT’s visit, Papsma president Kris Foo and others from the association brought the migrant workers basic supplies such as rice, chicken, onions, cooking oil and soap.
The supplies were also contributed by several hiring agencies, namely Pekerjaan Ami Awana; Pekerjaan Associates HR (KL); Pekerjaan Swaslink; and Pekerjaan HR Assist.
Foo, who owns a private workers dormitory near here, also agreed to lend cooking utensils to the Bangladeshis.
Meanwhile, Papsma told FMT that the Bangladeshis were moved to another dorm in Kuala Lumpur yesterday by their agents, after their plight drew the attention of the media.
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