Brunei Crackdown: 9 Bangladeshis sent back home

The Brunei authorities have deported nine Bangladeshis in the past one month, during a crackdown on labour exploitation and human trafficking.

Two other Bangladeshis allegedly involved in the crimes have recently been arrested and are awaiting deportation, while five accused are on the run, said officials of the Bangladesh high commission in the Southeast Asian country.

The crackdown began after the Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah had expressed his dissatisfaction over irregularities in the recruitment of foreign workers in the country, reports local daily Borneo Bulletin.

In an unscheduled visit to the country’s immigration and labour departments on October 8, the sultan raised questions about the enforcement of laws and regulations of foreign workers, says the daily.

Following the visit, the authorities blacklisted 31 companies under Bruneian-Bangladeshi joint ownerships for their involvement in several crimes affecting migrant workers.

These companies took several thousand Bangladeshis to Brunei in the last one year and took Tk 3-4 lakh from each of them as recruitment fees, said officials at the Bangladesh high commission.

All the workers recruited by these companies are jobless, said the officials, adding that the companies were also involved in taking extortion money from migrant workers, non-payment, and forceful deportation of workers.

Air Vice Marshall (Rtd) Mahmud Hossain, the Bangladesh high commissioner in Brunei, said some manpower brokers had got engaged in some corrupt practices in recent times.

“Some 6,000 Bangladeshi workers were recruited in the last one year without verification and attestation from the high commission. They are all jobless,” he told The Daily Star.

Many of these workers also tried to work in other companies defying the country’s law. The authorities deported many of them, he added.

The irregularities should be checked immediately as some 40,000 Bangladeshi workers still have the opportunity to enter the Brunei labour market as the country will be undertaking several development projects in the next few years, he said.