Many Bangladeshis in Malaysia facing food crisis

Dhaka should actively engage Kuala Lumpur to make sure that the Bangladeshi migrants undergoing hardships in Malaysia amid coronavirus pandemic get food through a government distribution channel, said migrant rights activists in Malaysia.

They said some non-profits with support from individual donors have been reaching out to the migrants, who have remained unpaid and run out their savings, to provide food for the last three weeks, but those efforts are inadequate compared to the needs on the ground.

"We are getting emergency calls from various parts of Malaysia that they don't have any savings and need food. The situation is going from bad to worse," said Mohammad Harun Al Rashid, chief coordinator of a non-profit, Bhalobashi Bangladesh, and a rights activist based in Malaysia.

Bangladesh High Commission in Malaysia too has provided some assistance to be distributed to the migrants through Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC), but that's also very minimal, he said.

There are some eight lakh Bangladeshis, including an estimated two lakh undocumented, in Malaysia that has been enforcing movement control order since March 18 due to Covid-19.

Until April 18, at least 5,305 people were infected and 86 of them died. For now, the partial lockdown is until April 28, but it may be further extended with some relaxations, Malaysian media reported quoting officials concerned.

All factories and businesses, except for the emergency ones, have remained closed -- a situation that is hurting migrants the most.

Malaysian nationals have been provided various incentives, including cash. Malaysian authorities asked the employers to pay wages to the workers, including migrants, though they remain in the dormitories and don't work to avoid risks of infection.

However, there are numerous cases that migrants are not being paid wages, said Harun Al Rashid. Those who are undocumented and work on contractual basis are even in more trouble, because they are mostly not being paid now as they remain in dormitories now, he said.

Rashid said some Malaysian organisations, including MTUC, Our Journey, Tenaganita, have been trying to mobilise funds from individual donors, but that has really been inadequate. Even, due to shutdown, it is not possible to get many volunteers who can distribute food to the remote areas all across Malaysia.

Bhalobashi Bangladesh, through an online campaign, early April asked those in food crisis to register. It then got applications of over 50,000 migrants. "Not all of those needing food could register," he told The Daily Star by phone from Johor Bahru recently.

Abu Hayat, an independent researcher based in Kuala Lumpur, said migrants working in some of the remote areas outside Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, especially in Penang and Johor Bahru, are not getting any help from the non-profits. He said many migrants are calling him, saying that they have not received their wages for the last two months.

In some cases, he said, he tried to reach out to some locals for funds or connected the migrants to the non-profits providing food.

"What happens in the cases of migrants that they send money immediately after they get salaries. So, they don't have much saving with them," Abu Hayat said.

Even, they borrow money from relatives in their home countries or friends in Malaysia. Now the situation is such that they can neither bring money from home nor any of their friends in Malaysia as all of them are in trouble, he added.

"I know one group of some 140 Bangladeshi migrants in Banting area of Selangor that they used to buy from a grocery on credit since they haven't received wages, but now the grocery shop also stopped selling to them on credit. I am trying to connect them to a non-profit," Abu Hayat said.

Harun Al Rashid said the fact that a large number of Bangladeshis work in Malaysia, the Bangladesh government needs to communicate and collaborate with Malaysian authorities so that the migrants needing assistance get it through government distribution channels.

If need be, the Bangladesh government can make a contribution to Malaysian government in this regard," he said. It's time for humanitarian diplomacy and solidarity. People, wherever they are, should not suffer for food, Rashid added.