Malaysian misery
Everybody looks at the bundle of money that the overseas workers, mainly the poor people of the country, send back home, but no one inquires what working conditions they undergo and ultimately how they actually benefit from their employment far from their relatives and homeland.
Starting from the rural and urban brokers, the recruiting agents at home and the outsourcing or recruiting agents abroad, their sub-agents or brokers and the employers -- all take the best out of the workers who sell cows and land and even borrow at high rates to raise money for a dream job.
The state, which is ultimately responsible to protect its fellow citizens, also seemed to be helpless in bringing an end to gross violations of the workers' rights that has been going on in Malaysia since the manpower export began in a fresh manner last August.
Only one example of the Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia very well illustrates a picture of how desperate they could be for their due rights. The workers who went on hunger strike for five days until last Friday said they wanted to die but would not return to their workplaces where their employers gave them only one meal a day and lower pay for longer hours than what they were promised.
This is however not an isolated incident. There were a number of reports published by the media that apart from violating such job contracts, the outsourcing companies hired more workers and hid them in the closed buildings and even in the jungles.
Experts in the manpower business said such incidents of low pay and violation of contract take place as some recruiting agents and their brokers exaggerate the salaries and other facilities when they woo the workers before they leave for the overseas workplaces.
"The recruiting agents while dealing with hundreds of workers' recruitment issues also do not check the job contracts on one-to-one basis. On the other hand, there are also workers who just believe the words of the agents about their jobs and salaries," said a recruiting agent.
Thus, when workers find that they are not getting the salaries as promised or are forced to work for longer hours, they usually get agitated.
"The salary we get could be enough only for our meal and pocket money here. We spent Tk 2.3 lakh. What shall we send home?" one of the 121 workers demonstrating in the premises of Bangladesh High Commission asked when he was interviewed by BBC Bangla Service last Saturday.
A migrants' rights organisation working in Malaysia, Tenaganita, recently conducted a survey on Malaysia's recruitment process of Bangladeshi workers, and blamed the outsourcing system, saying that this leads to a situation where the workers become just like victims of trafficking.
As per the Malaysian rule, outsourcing companies can hire workers from Bangladesh through recruiting agencies of Bangladesh. These companies sign contracts with the principal companies (factories or farms) to supply workers, and are responsible for the workers' salaries, lodging, transport, medical expenses, and insurance.
There were, however, a number of cases where the workers complained that the companies did not pay them in due time and deducted money on various charges like electricity, water, medical, and meal.
"For no reason, the authorities deduct money from salaries. They even deduct as fine the price if a small part of a machine is destroyed," a written complaint of a group of exploited workers to Bangladesh High Commission said in June.
"According to our job contracts signed in Bangladesh, our basic salary was fixed at 18.50 Ringit, but on arrival in Malaysia, we had to sign a new contract form that fixed the daily basic salary at 15 Ringit," the complaint added.
The organisation that found massive irregularities in the outsourcing system reported that the outsourcing companies had to pay between 1,500 and 2,000 Ringit (Tk 30,000 to Tk 40,000) to the Malaysian Home Ministry and spend 1,000 to 2,000 Ringit (Tk 20,000 to Tk 40,000) as "lobbyist fee."
Tenaganita, which conducted the survey report after interviewing 150 jobless and stranded workers and studying 36 cases of the workers, also said around 1,000 workers had been stuck in various places in western Malaysia in May/June this year.
A human rights activist in Malaysia said the outsourcing companies hire more workers than that of the actual demand of the factories or farms or hire workers against fake demand letters, which leads to such a situation.
"The Bangladesh High Commission that inspects the workplaces must have made mistakes in inspecting factories for which the outsourcing companies got scope to cheat the workers," he said.
The newspapers, including The Daily Star, also reported several times of incidents that Bangladeshi workers got stuck at Kuala Lumpur International Airport for weeks which was again proved by a report of a Malaysian newspaper, The Star, that thousands of foreign workers, mostly Bangladeshis, were forced to camp in a car-park at the airport as their employers did not pick them up.
Around 400 Bangladeshis were also deported from Kuala Lumpur due to mismatches of their fingerprints, but the government is yet to find out any reasons behind it.
While such are the circumstances with regard to manpower export in Malaysia, the government, which takes pride in sending more workers abroad in short time and of swelling foreign exchange reserves, has not taken any significant actions to bring an end to violations of the workers. Since August last year, over 150,000 workers have gone to Malaysia.
Acting secretary of the expatriates' welfare ministry, Abdul Matin Chowdhury, however said a government delegation led by him earlier visited Malaysia and held talks with Malaysian home and labour ministries. "We are now again going to Malaysia to find reasons behind repeated incidents of such nature. The Malaysian home minister is also coming early next month, which proves that they are also interested to solve the problems arisen."
Let us hope that the latest efforts bear fruit. The plight of our overseas workers has gone unredressed far too long.
Porimol Palma is Staff Correspondent, The Daily Star.
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