Bangladeshi workers protest over 6P scam

They want action against company which they claim had fleeced them of thousands of ringgit.

KUALA LUMPUR: More than 50 Bangladeshi workers picketed outside the Bangladesh High Commission in Jalan Ampang demanding that action be taken against a company that had duped them of thousands of ringgit.

They want the commission to pressure authorities to bring the Akhwan Group of Companies, owned by a Bangladeshi, to book for failing in its promise to get them registered under the 6P amnesty programme.

Accompanied by local workers NGO Tenaganita, the picketers, some holding placards that read, ‘We’ve paid for 6P, why aren’t we legalised? Where are our permits?’, said they have been left in a lurch without their passports which is being held by the company.

Tenaganita’s executive director, Irene Fernandez, said the workers had lodged numerous complaints to the police, immigration department and the Bangladesh embassy but to no avail.

She claimed the number of victims who had fallen to the scam was estimated to be 5,000, all of whom had their passports withheld by the Akhwan Group of Companies.

Bangladesh’s labour consular officer, Mantu Kumar Biswas, later came out to meet the crowd, and promised to hold discussions with Malaysian authorities.

When asked if he would demand the authorities to act against Akhwan or to get back the passports for the workers, he said: “It depended on the outcome of discussions.”

Blacklisted

Irene asked how Akhwan obtained 11 biometric equipments to put the workers’ names in the national data system despite the company not being on the Home Ministry’s 6P agents list.

She also claimed that Siraju Amin, the man behind Akhwan, was blacklisted by the Malaysia government for malpractices in recruiting Bangladeshi workers in 2007.

“Reports have been made against his company, why is he still free?” she asked.

Selangor Anti-Human Trafficking Association representative Abdul Aziz Ismail claimed police had refused to open a case on the matter.

“We applied to the court for verification on the related laws and the magistrate’s court wrote back saying there was indeed a violation of laws under Section 420 of Penal Code,” he said.

Meanwhile, one of the workers, S Rubin, claimed that he saved up the RM4,000 levy required by the company for over a year.

“Because I could not produce my passport, I’m unable to get a job and also not able send money to my family for eight months now. I have been living on friends’ help,” he said.

Another worker Yusof Safuurathman said he was afraid to go out because the police might arrest him as he is without a passport.