The misery of migrant workers in Malaysia

Reports of Bangladeshi migrant workers falling victim to abuse, mistreatment, fraud and other maltreatment in the hands of their foreign employers are not new. The most recent incident to hit the headline is that of Miraj Munshi, an undocumented Bangladeshi migrant worker who was denied compensation for his injury as his employer had tricked him into lying to the authority. He is one of the thousands of Bangladeshi workers for whom life is synonymous with a daily, persistent struggle in a foreign land. 

Even though the Malaysian government has offered a blanket amnesty on all Bangladeshi migrant workers, over two lakh Bangladeshis have still remained unregistered and thus unaccounted for in the country, making them the most vulnerable of the lot. Most of them do not have any job security, not to mention incidents of extortion and exploitation that they go through on a regular basis.  They are neither entitled to legal protection nor covered by insurance.

We believe that it is incumbent upon the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment to take up Munshi's and other such cases to the authorities concerned in Malaysia. We also urge our mission in Kuala Lumpur to contact the undocumented Bangladeshis and make them aware of the pitfalls of working in Malaysia without any valid document. We hope that the ministry will probe into the incidents of abuse and death and will take concrete measures to ensure that our citizens work abroad in peace. Also, we earnestly plead with the government to open new avenues of opportunities for the migration of skilled workers.