Thousands of Pakistani migrant workers are stranded in Saudi Arabia, and experts predict the situation will only worsen with the plummeting oil prices Shahzad Hussain, father of a young son, belongs to district Sheikhupura in Punjab. Around six months ago, he borrowed Rs600,000 from his relatives and friends to go to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for […]
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 […]
Bangladeshis who came to Malaysia before August 2015 as a tourist or labourer can apply for legal worker status. But agents are making money by promising all migrant workers that they can help them obtain legal status. Even the main company involved with the legalization process of migrant workers, MYEG, is taking advantage of workers. […]
The maltreatment of migrants has led to many deaths and brought disgrace to the country besides obstructing long-term economic progress. By Joshua Woo Sze Zeng in Free Malaysia Today The Nepalese embassy’s recent report of 461 deaths of its workers in 2015 is a 32% increase from the 348 deaths in 2014. That is an […]
Almost 50 percent of migrant workers in Malaysian detention camps are from Bangladesh. The conditions here are often cruel and inhuman. The Bangladesh High Commission says there is lack of supervision in the camps; many of the charges against workers are not true. (As broadcast on Ekattor TV, Bangladesh.)
To avoid arrests, illegal/ undocumented workers in Malaysia are now living in forests and abandoned warehouses. Since they don’t have a visa or employment papers, they are in conflict with the police. On one hand, helpless Bangladeshi migrant workers are not getting jobs; on the other hand they cannot pay back the money they have […]
These migrant workers came to Malaysia via illegal sea routes and are passing their days in fear. They told Ekattor TV how their fellow travelers were submitted to brutal physical torture and some died of lack of food. Despite being able to earn a few Ringgit every month, they are destined to be unhappy. (As […]
Nepali workers are unlawfully forced to become ‘illegal’ by unscrupulous employers, recruiters and the government. When Malaysia launched a massive crackdown on illegal migrant workers in 2014, thousands of Nepalis without passports here were left with only two options: return home or get arrested. To return home without passports, Nepali workers would require travel documents. […]
When Meilani Yuswandari, an Indonesian from Jakarta, completed her higher secondary education, she began looking for work abroad. During her search, Yuswandari met a recruiting agent who assured her of an office job in Jordan. But when she reached the country in 2011, she realised that the office job she was promised did not exist. […]
Bangladeshi migrant workers are finding it difficult to get Machine Readable Passports (MPR). They are desperately trying to contact agents or the High Commission. If they do not have an MRP passport by 31 July they will lose their job and could be arrested for being an undocumented/ illegal migrant worker. The High Commission says […]