A Bangladeshi national, who stayed for 10 hours in Kuala Lumpur Airport on July 10 on his way to Dhaka from the United States, discovered the workers roaming around scattered and scared in the airport.

"I was going to the smoking room of a hotel in the airport and saw three men wearing caps. I suspected them to be Bangladeshis and asked them about their whereabouts. They then told me the story," he said, preferring not to be named.

Speaking to The Daily Star yesterday, the Bangladeshi expatriate, now in Dhaka, said according to the workers, they were not allowed to enter the country because their fingerprints did not match their records.

"One of them was just crying, saying that they spent over Tk 2 lakh to get to Malaysia," he said. "What will happen to us if we are sent back home?" he quoted a worker as saying.

The expatriate Bangladeshi said he then offered them some food and cigarettes. Afterwards, he made repeated phone calls to the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, but nobody attended it.

He said he telephoned the Bangladesh High Commission in Kula Lumpur after arriving in Dhaka and requested the consular, Talat Khan, to take steps to protect the stranded workers.

"I wonder how citizens of a country are subject to such negligence," he said.

Since last October, around 400 workers have been denied entry to Malaysia and sent back home, following fingerprints mismatches at the Kuala Lumpur immigration.

The Bangladesh government however has been unable to identify the reasons behind such mismatches in the biometric system.

The government has also failed in its efforts to convince the Malaysian government to allow those workers into the country.

"We asked the Malaysian government to consider the issue of the workers, but it took a strong position against our proposal and said it will in no way allow entry of the workers with fingerprint mismatches," Abdul Matin Chowdhury, secretary to the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment, earlier told The Daily Star.

Matching fingerprints through biometric system is recognised as the best technology to detect fraud during migrations. According to the new system, workers intending to go to Malaysia must first submit their fingerprints to the office of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) in Dhaka.

Once the workers reach Kuala Lumpur Airport immigration after all necessary formalities, they are permitted to enter the country only if their fingerprints match with the recorded ones.

According to experts, the fingerprint is a biological feature that does not change. Therefore, several countries use the biometric system to prevent fraud in migrations from one country to another.

But surprisingly, more than 400 workers' fingerprints have not matched during checks at immigration in Kuala Lumpur since the resumption of manpower export to Malaysia in October last year.