FMT 16th May 2023: No work, money, or food – the nightmare of migrant jobseekers
A group of 120 Bangladeshi migrant workers seek jobs and compensation after struggling to survive since arriving in Malaysia four months ago.
Original Article Available at: Free Malaysia Today.
Stranded Bangladeshi workers get jobs, thanks to labour dept – a ministry source says they have been taken in by a new firm which also pays their salaries according to the minimum wage
Seems to be so many such cases as these ones (copied in full below) occurring nowadays in Malaysia. This is just yet another case of stranded Bangladeshis (also Nepalis impacted in this specific case too).
Thousands of workers are in a desperate situation right now in Malaysia. In debt from exploitative recruitment practices of source country and Malaysian agents and employers, in abject poverty, without sufficient food or shelter, most obviously without work as their means of survival.
The promises to the workers of meaningful support, decent jobs and ensuring accountability and justice from the Malaysian government and employers, recruitment agencies and related embassies (Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Nepal) remain generally unfulfilled here.
Many migrant workers, when they reach out for support for their desperate situation in Malaysia, are instead even unfairly arrested, detained and deported for becoming ‘irregular.’ Even accusations of workers being tortured whilst in detention facilities in the country, and for what wrong they have done in paying massive fees for non-existent jobs in a foreign country?
Bogus Malaysian manpower agencies, bogus Malaysian employers, no jobs were ever even available for many of them when they were brought into the country at such high cost and/or the economic situation changed quickly too for some of their employers.
The Malaysian government’s migrant worker management systems at this time unfortunately remain fundamentally flawed, abusive, with limited rule of law, accountability or protection for such vulnerable workers as these.
It was very clear since late 2022 that the Malaysian migrant worker/employer quota system was slowly spinning out of control again. The protection safeguards (inspections of workplaces and accommodation, licensing of accomodation) meant to be involved in hiring migrant workers were rashly removed by Anwar’s government in the rush to bring workers into the country more easily.
Corruption and impunity were sure to flourish in an environment where migration management was already so poor and irregular, and abused vulnerable worker numbers would surely increase, if the quota system was not managed well again. Special migrant worker hiring approvals were on the come back, fast tracked approvals in days or hours… now we see the result with stranded and abused worker cases rising.
See also: Reuters – ‘Reuters 15th May 2023: Malaysia says firms that hired stranded migrant workers to face action’.
See also: Andy Hall – April 20th 2023: Malaysia probes cases of migrant workers left jobless, without passports.
See also: Commentary 15th May 2023: Anwar faces political tricky situation in tackling migrant labour issues.
– A widening corruption probe at the Human Resource Ministry is bringing to focus fundamental flaws in Malaysia’s foreign worker recruitment ecosystem. CNA’s Leslie Lopez looks at how this can be an opportunity for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government to bring a sledgehammer to the current system.
No work, money, or food – the nightmare of migrant jobseekers
A group of 120 Bangladeshi migrant workers seek jobs and compensation after struggling to survive since arriving in Malaysia four months ago.
About 120 Bangladeshi migrant workers gathered at the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur yesterday to ask for help to secure job placements and financial compensation from their employers.
PETALING JAYA: With no jobs, meagre accommodation, and mounting debt, hundreds of Bangladeshi migrant workers’ dreams of a better future in Malaysia have turned into a nightmare.
Despite their pleas for help, their plight remains unresolved, leaving them in distress.
Infuriated with their living conditions, around 120 Bangladeshi migrant workers gathered at the Bangladesh High Commission in the sweltering heat yesterday seeking a resolution.
A spokesman for the workers who wished to be identified as Abraham said workers had not been given jobs upon their arrival in February or paid any allowance in the last four months.
“They (Bangladeshi workers) came here and their accommodations are not appropriate. Even some of the accommodation don’t have proper sanitation (facilities). Their situation is very bad.
“No one can imagine the environment of their living area, no jobs, no money, and no food to survive,” he told FMT.
Abraham said as many as 600 Bangladeshi migrant workers came into the country through four different companies in the belief that they would get jobs as housekeepers in Genting Highlands. However, they are currently cooped up in a small hostel in Nilai, Seremban.
Some workers claimed to have received RM200 from a company representative, hardly enough to tide them through the four months they have been in Malaysia.
“(The workers) are frustrated and depressed because they took out loans from relatives, banks and sold land to come here,” said Abraham, adding that their sacrifice seemed to have been for nothing.
He said the workers also had to pay exorbitant recruitment fees ranging from RM20,000 to RM25,000.
Abraham said the workers voiced their grievances to Bangladesh High Commission officials and asked for help to secure job placements and financial compensation from their employers.
Later in the day, Abraham said an employer from one of the companies met with an official at the high commission and agreed that they would arrange jobs for the workers and pay them one month’s salary within 10 days.
FMT has asked the Bangladesh High Commission for comment.
In April, the high commission said Putrajaya’s approval process for the recruitment of migrant workers lacked transparency, leading to many workers being left unemployed. It said the labour department holds responsibility to ensure the legal rights of all domestic and migrant workers.
Reuters reported that the labour department has promised to take action against recruitment agencies and companies found to have misused government quotas and licences for hiring migrant workers, leaving them stranded without jobs.
Reuters 15th May 2023: Malaysia says firms that hired stranded migrant workers to face action
Original Article Available at: Reuters – 15th May 2023.
KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 (Reuters) – Malaysia said on Monday it would sanction firms and strip away licences from recruitment agencies involved in hiring migrant workers who later found themselves stranded without jobs in the country.
Reuters reported last week that hundreds of South Asian migrants, mostly from Bangladesh and Nepal, had been left in limbo after arriving in Malaysia, where they were told that jobs promised to them in exchange for steep recruitment fees were no longer available. Malaysia announced a probe last month.
The plight of the migrants – many of whom say they have not been paid salaries for months – comes amid concerns over workplace abuses in Malaysia, with several companies facing U.S. bans for forced labour in recent years.
In response to Reuters’ queries, Malaysia’s Labour Department vowed to take action against recruitment agencies and companies found to have misused government quotas and licences for hiring migrant workers.
The department said in an emailed statement it would conduct a thorough investigation, and would not compromise on any unlawful activities that could “lead to any form of forced labour”.
The department said it had moved some of the stranded workers to government-registered quarters, and compelled some companies to pay for their accommodation and salaries.
It did not say how many workers in a similar plight it had identified, or how many firms or agencies it was investigating.
The department also denied reports that two Nepali citizens had died by suicide at a workers’ accommodation facility.
It cited police investigations that determined only one death – that of a Nepali recruitment agent, who had travelled to Malaysia to oversee the cases of workers stranded.
The police would conduct a further probe into the death, the department said.
