Editorial
Dhaka's move on workers in Malaysia
Those doing wrong must be identified and penalised
Only a couple of days after we first commented on the subject, we note with some relief that the Bangladesh government has formally lodged a complaint with the Malaysian authorities against PTC Asia Pacific. The Malaysian firm has been remiss in not being able to provide Bangladeshis arriving in Kuala Lumpur (and recruited by it) with appropriate jobs and wages. Such behaviour is a clear breach of contract and action needs to be taken against those responsible for such cavalier treatment toward Bangladeshi workers travelling all the way to Malaysia to earn enough to keep themselves and their families back home in a satisfactory economic state. That our workers are often treated badly, with hardly any way for them to have their grievances redressed in Malaysia, has been highlighted by the hunger strike resorted to by more than a hundred Bangladeshis on the premises of the country's high commission in Kuala Lumpur.
The striking workers have now been handed over by Malaysian police to a human rights organisation. But the problems of low wages, arrear money, etc., that these men have brought to public notice have yet to be resolved. The Malaysian authorities must now, in view of Bangladesh's complaint, take appropriate action against the recruiting company responsible for the workers' plight with the specific goal of ensuring that their dues are cleared. At the same time, steps should be taken (and this is where the governments of the two countries can cooperate) toward providing these workers with jobs in other firms considering that they have already lost a good amount of money paying the recalcitrant company's agents to go to Kuala Lumpur. Much the same approach ought to be taken in dealing with the case of 4,000-5,000 Bangladeshis now stranded in, of all places, the car park of Kuala Lumpur airport only because their Malaysian employers did not come to the airport to receive them. For the Malaysian authorities, therefore, the job should be one of locating the employers and taking them to task for such irresponsible, indeed culpable behaviour. For the Bangladesh government, the need is to go after the recruitment agencies in Dhaka responsible for the workers' plight on foreign soil.
The role of the Bangladesh high commission also comes in for some scrutiny here. It needs to answer a few questions regarding the way it has been tackling migrant worker-related issues in Malaysia, especially the incident of an attack on the striking workers allegedly by agents of the recruitment agencies. The government's decision to send a team led by the expatriates welfare secretary to Kuala Lumpur to look into the issue is a good move that should not end up being yet another instance of tokenism.
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