Migrant workers ‘threatened with deportation after complaints’

 

Workers at a chicken processing factory. More than 200 migrant workers have allegedly been threatened by the management after complaints.

PETALING JAYA: A migrant rights activist has alleged that more than 200 Bangladeshi and Nepali labourers working at a chicken processing factory in the Klang Valley are being threatened with deportation.

Andy Hall said the threats were made by the factory management after authorities intervened when they were alerted to poor working conditions and delayed salary payments.

“The workers were asked to gather at the canteen and told that they should not be communicating any issue outside of management,” he told FMT.

He alleged that the management demanded to know those responsible for relaying information to outsiders, and “issued threats of deportation if such communication persists”.

Hall said the Bangladeshis working at the receiving area were only recently provided with protective equipment, such as masks, goggles and plastic aprons.

Previously, they had been exposed to unsanitary conditions involving faeces and blood. “Some chickens were still alive and began flapping as they were being slaughtered,” he said.

He said the labourers finally received three months’ pay after the authorities intervened, but still do not have their passports which they were told were being kept by the factory management.

FMT has sought comment from the human resources ministry, the labour department, and the factory concerned.

The Bangladeshis were part of a larger group that FMT reported as being left stranded after they arrived for work in Penang in December, only to be left without jobs.

The workers said they were sent to a factory in Johor Bahru by the Bangladesh high commission in April but their bus was told to turn back after two hours.

They were then placed in a dormitory in Subang Jaya, which had only one toilet, and placed to work at a chicken processing factory. - FMT