Agents in Malaysia have swindled a huge sum of money from thousands of Bangladeshi workers in the Southeast Asian country, who, over the last two years, had applied to regularise their immigration status, victims and researchers said. The exploitation of workers began after Malaysia declared a rehiring programme in February 2016 and appointed three private […]
Author: Porimol Palma
Hasan had applied for a work permit nearly six months before the Malaysian authorities’ rehiring programme for undocumented foreign workers ended on June 30. He had all the documents to prove that, but those meant nothing to the immigration police. On September 3, the police detained him and dozens of others from Bukit Bintang area […]
It was around 9:00pm on September 11. After a day’s hard work, some of the 10 workers living in a makeshift house next to a large construction site in Malaysia’s Cyberjaya were preparing food while others were either having meals or chatting before going to bed. Suddenly, they heard the sound of four to five […]
Thousands of Bangladeshis are facing risks of arrest and deportation from Malaysia as its rehiring programme, launched two years ago to legalise undocumented workers, ends today. The risks have been heightened also as the new Malaysian government, which came to power last month, has recently decided to cancel work permits of the migrants employed for […]
Sharmeen (not real name), 35, of Munshiganj, returned from Saudi Arabia on May 24, five months after she had gone to the kingdom for work. “My husband is not accepting me. He asked why I did not send money and why I returned home,” she told this correspondent on June 6. Sharmeen proceeded to recount […]
Every day, Rehana Khatun had to toil for hours for a family of 12 near Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Despite this, she was not properly fed and allowed to sleep for more than four hours. Sometimes, the 35-year-old had stomach ache because of her gastrointestinal problems. But she was too afraid to complain […]
Mizanur Rahman, a mason at a construction firm in Saudi Arabia, is worried about losing his job. His employer has recently expressed inability to continue some of the ongoing projects due to financial crisis. The lone breadwinner of a five-member family from Faridpur cannot even begin to imagine what would happen to his family if […]
Malaysia appoints Synerflux to recruit workers from Bangladesh; rights groups say the decision will lead to monopoly Malaysia has appointed a private company to manage recruitment of Bangladeshi workers under the new G2G Plus system, despite rights groups’ fears that the appointment of a single company will lead to monopoly. The Malaysian company — Synerflux […]
As Malaysia’s economy starts to slow down in the face of falling oil prices and political uncertainty, Bangladeshi workers in the Southeast Asian nation are starting to feel the crunch. The value of the ringgit has gone down to a 17-year low against the US dollar amid political uncertainty. This has started to eat away […]
Mohammad Shafiq was shocked when he saw policemen carrying dozens of coffins to a graveyard at Kampong Tualang village of Alor Setar in Malaysia’s northern state of Kedah late June. He saw hundreds of locals rushing there to see the bodies recovered from different mass graves in Malaysia. None came to claim the bodies, believed […]