Maltreatment of Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia
Reportedly, Bangladeshi expatriate workers in Malaysia are being rounded up and herded off to immigration camps at random. According to one victim, expatriate workers having valid work papers are being detained despite the fact that the bulk of them have applied for extension to the Malaysian Immigration Department. They have been thrust into this position because some of the employers have not renewed the visas of Bangladeshi workers. This is compounded by the fact that the extension is taking too long to process. While the Malaysian authorities can and will crack down on the illegal workers, our point is, why are those who have applied for regularisation of work status being treated as criminals? Under any circumstances, maltreatment of an expatriate by the authorities there is unacceptable.
We must stress that these Bangladeshi workers have been working in Malaysia for a long time and have contributed quite significantly to its economy. They deserve better than the treatment they are being meted out, least of all, the despicable, squalid conditions that inmates have to endure at these detention centres which, apparently, lack basic sanitation and are overcrowded. It is our appeal to the new government under Mr Mahathir Mohammad to address this issue humanely.
We are not aware of any action our foreign ministry might have taken with regard to the thousands of Bangladeshis detained in Malaysia. We wonder what steps our High Commission in Kuala Lumpur have taken to engage the Malaysian authorities in a dialogue. We are always beating the drums about the huge sacrifices our workers make in foreign lands to bring in precious foreign exchange. What are we doing in their time of need?
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