Some things just don’t seem to change in Malaysia, and the plight of migrant workers is one of those things.
Despite the positive statements by the new government leaders to eradicate exploitation of workers and to stop the undocumented from entering Malaysia, it is happening again, with cases being reported of foreign workers coming here after spending tens of thousands of ringgit and being left in the lurch.
It’s hard to blame the policymakers in this instance, as the request for the number of workers is from businesses, and quota approvals are made by the labour department .
Last week, in a quick reaction, the government suspended all applications and processing for foreign workers until further notice to ensure the employers sort out the arrival of the 995,396 approved workers so far.
Human resources minister V Sivakumar said this after it was found that the number of approved workers coming into the country was low compared to the 995,396 given the nod to date.
This makes one wonder if the urgent requests for foreign workers has been a ploy by some to bring them in first and find employers later. This had happened in the past frequently, causing huge social problems.
The minister’s decision to suspend fresh approvals is the right move but there is a need to check on how these quotas were approved in the first place, and asking the agents and employers to state their reasons for the delays in bringing in the workers despite their urgent requests.
A few days ago, Indonesian ambassador Hermono said of the 65,850 applications approved for maids, only 3,150 employment contracts have been signed. He suspects that many of them could have reached here by illegal means.
On 15 March, 10 Bangladeshi migrant workers, who paid RM20,000 (460,000 Taka) each to a recruitment agency in Dhaka to reach Malaysian shores, were arrested after their employer left them in the cold.
They told immigration authorities that two agents took their passports away after meeting them at Penang airport.
The shocking part is these workers were not in possession of valid documents, after their purported employers failed to provide them with jobs since they arrived last December.
The 10 of them were in the second batch of 47 workers who arrived on Dec 29 and remained in Penang. The first batch of 48 workers who arrived on Dec 21 moved to Selangor.
A check on their documents showed that they entered the country with a “Visit Pass Temporary Employment” category issued by the Malaysian immigration on Nov 28 last year.
This is a temporary three-month permit to enable migrant workers to come in and work immediately while the employers apply for a full work visa. Obviously, all of them were found to be in possession of the pass which expired last month.
Based on this, it appears that all the 95 workers who arrived in December could be facing the same plight, wherever they are staying. And God knows how many more such workers from Bangladesh and Indonesia are here in Malaysia.
As if their mental anguish of unemployment is not enough, the workers said they had to endure living in overcrowded quarters with poor quality food provided by the company which was supposed to employ them.
Earlier this month, 117 workers from Bangladesh were not offered jobs after paying recruitment agents for the approvals under the Foreign Worker Employment Relaxation Plan launched in January.
What’s going on? Just when statements by political leaders gave a glimmer of hope for migrant workers to be treated like human beings, we see them being fleeced by unscrupulous agents from both here and the source countries.
This action is tantamount to human trafficking which has been a bane for Malaysia in the past, pushing it to Tier 3 of the US State Department’s annual human trafficking report since 2020.
In the Penang case, the names of the sending agents in Bangladesh and those receiving them in Malaysia are clearly known. Why is the action against them so slow? Shouldn’t the relevant authorities in the two countries haul them up for an explanation immediately?
Malaysia has in the past been branded as a pariah nation for the way we treated migrant workers, often underpaying them and housing them in dilapidated conditions, or not giving them their wages at all.
It is an open secret that recruitment of migrant workers is a lucrative money spinner, which has seen many immigration officers and politicians being hauled to court for corruption.
Honestly, none of the four governments in the last six years, including the current one, seem to have a clue on how to wipe out this “flesh trade”. The ministers and government heads appear to be fond of dishing out statements after statements, with little or no action.
Our borders may be a little porous, allowing some undocumented migrants to slip in, but obviously there are people who may be enabling this despite recent tough actions against corrupt immigration officers.
There has to be a complete overhaul of the system of recruitment of foreign workers once and for all.
All it needs is some serious political will with honest politicians and civil servants who work for the nation and not money. - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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