Editorial
Our stranded workers in Kuala Lumpur
Firm action against offenders is called for
THE difficulties in which 32 Bangladeshi workers have found themselves in Kuala Lumpur raise once again the issue of what is yet not being done to ease the plight of our citizens abroad. We have earlier and on a number of occasions drawn the attention of the authorities here in Bangladesh about the paramount need to ensure that recruiting agencies follow rules and norms aimed specifically at ensuring the welfare of Bangladeshis sent abroad to work in various firms. While we realise that a good number of such agencies have indeed been operating on the basis of standard procedures, there have been quite a few others which have not exactly been above board in their dealings with the workers they send abroad. At the same time, we think it is time to inquire into the workings of the overseas firms responsible for the shoddy deals with local recruitment agencies regarding our workers.
The 32 workers in question have been stranded at Kuala Lumpur airport, and that too in a depot, for a week because the firm for which they are supposed to work refused to receive them. The reason cited for their not being welcome is as regrettable as it is bizarre. The employment firm has made it clear that the Bangladeshi recruiting agency, Shikha Trade International, failed to pay it more than 70,000 Ringgit as part of their financial deal. Now, what emerges here is a situation in which the stranded workers are not at all responsible for their plight. They have all paid their dues and in a manner in which hard-up Bangladeshis have always done so. It was therefore natural for them to expect, once they arrived in Malaysia, to get to work and begin dreaming of a better future for their families back home. That has not happened because of the very sinister way in which the recruitment agency in Dhaka and the employing firm in Kuala Lumpur have been handling conditions.
Bangladeshi workers have of late fallen regular victims to the caprices of employment organisations in Kuala Lumpur. One now wonders if the Bangladesh ministry responsible for ensuring expatriate workers' welfare abroad has at all been doing its job. We will be happy if this new episode in misery spurs it into action against the bad eggs in the overseas employment basket.
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