10 Bangladeshis held after being abandoned by their "employer" in cold

Ten Bangladeshi migrant workers were arrested in Malaysia this week for lacking proper documentation after their alleged employer failed to offer them employment since they arrived in the country in December.

The detainees along with 75 other workers paid RM20,000 (Tk4.75 lacks) each in recruitment fees to a Bangladeshi agency that promised them positions at an engineering firm in Selangor.

According to Abdullah, a spokesman for the group, two agency personnel met them at the Penang International Airport and took their passports away from them, reports FMT. 

The first batch of 48 workers, who arrived on 21 Dec, moved to Selangor, and the second batch of 47 workers, who came on 29 Dec, remained in Penang, where the company put them up in "overcrowded quarters and also gave them poor quality food", he said.

A source of FMT at the Penang labour department said they received a report from the department's headquarters about migrant workers living in unfavourable conditions in the state.

"On Monday, we conducted an operation with the police and the immigration department at four locations in Butterworth and Bukit Mertajam," he said.

"Our checks revealed that 10 workers did not have passports or work permits. They only had photos (of the documents) on their phones. From the photos, the permits and passports had already expired. They were detained by the immigration department for overstaying." he added. 

Human resources minister of Malaysia V Sivakumar said that he was aware of the matter and said the ministry will issue a statement soon.

Earlier this month, Sivakumar said he received a report from a Bangladesh diplomatic representative regarding an incident where 117 workers from the country were not offered jobs after arriving two weeks earlier in Malaysia under the Foreign Worker Employment Relaxation Plan launched in January.

However, the Penang labour department source said the 95 workers were not part of the 117 workers Sivakumar had referred to.