10 Bangladeshis detained in Malaysia

The country`s immigration department detained them last Monday. Photo: Collected

The country's immigration department has detained 10 Bangladeshi immigrants in Malaysia. According to the report of the country's media Free Malaysia Today on Thursday (March 16), they were detained because they did not have any valid documents.

According to the report, employers failed to offer them jobs after entering Malaysia last December. 95 Bangladeshi workers were supposed to be employed in an engineering company in Selangor. That's why they paid about 20,000 Malaysian Ringgit to an agency in Bangladesh for the recruitment fee.

Abdullah is one of the detainees. He told Free Malaysia Today that they were met by two engineering company representatives at Penang Airport. The two took their passports. The first batch of 48 out of 95 arrived in Malaysia on December 21. They later moved to Selangor. The second batch of 47 people arrived in the country on December 29. But they remained in Penang.

Abdullah said that the company allowed them to pile up in one quarter and the food provided to them was also of very poor quality. A source at the Penang Labor Department said they had received a report from the headquarters about poor working conditions for migrant workers.

According to sources, last Monday, the Penang Labor Department conducted an operation with the police and immigration department at 4 locations in Butterworth and Bukit Mertajam. Passports and work permits of 10 expatriates were not found in the raid. Only pictures of documents are available on their phones. It is known from the pictures that their permits and passports have already expired. They were detained by the immigration department as they were not valid.

Malaysia's Human Resources Minister V Sivakumar said he was aware of the matter. The ministry will soon make a statement in this regard.

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