110 workers were on their 5th Day of hunger strike over demands for salaries not paid for last six months and the need for the High Commission to intervene to assist them in their demands. These workers were employed by PTC, Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd is a labor recruiter cum contractor registered and approved by the Home Ministry.
The negotiations for alternative employment and payment of six months wages, has been going on for a month together with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Labor Department. However, the situation became very tense on September 15, 2007. The High Commission called the Immigration department and the Police to take action.
But the Police then called for a meeting with all relevant agencies including Tenaganita and the lawyers. The meeting decided that the Labor department will handle the issue of wages, alternative employment will be given and that PTC Asia Pacific will see to the welfare of workers while the case is being settled.
But in the same night, a number of agents, more than 10 agents with the support of Commission staff beat up the workers and forcefully took the workers in two buses to an unknown destination. With the immediate intervention of the organization, the police requested the workers be brought back and remain under the care of Tenaganita.
Tenaganita takes seriously the way the workers have been handled. We condemn the violence perpetrated at the workers by the agents inside the premises of the High Commission. We are deeply concerned over the cooperation given by staff to the recruiting agents to attack the workers. Why did the High Commission allow the agents to beat up the workers?
The High Commission must be held accountable for the abuse of its own citizens. There is growing concern over the ineffective way of handling the cases. The problems faced by Bangadeshi workers are widespread and multiple. Tenaganita alone has more than 12 cases consisting of over 5000 workers. There are another 4000 over workers stranded at the KLIA airport. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Yet the Labor Attaché denies this stark reality. The state of denial has led to inaction that consequently creates enhanced problems.
The High Commission attests all the contracts of Bangladeshi migrant workers to Malaysia. If the High Commission had genuinely verified the status of the company and their demand for workers, these thousands of workers will not be facing such problems.
The question for us is how far and committed is the High Commission in helping the workers. The situation will turn for the worse and become ugly if there is no proactive action from the Bangladesh government in Dhaka. There has to be a review on the capacity of the consular services that should include the provision of special services for workers who are in Malaysia
We call on the Bangladesh government to have an open and transparent investigation into the violence and abuse of workers at the High Commission. And we hope the review and investigations will bring about changes that will ensure the protection of the rights of its nationals working in Malaysia, the monitoring and regulatory measures for management of recruiting agents, and where possible to do away with such services.
We urge both governments, Malaysia and Bangladesh, to review the recruitment and employment of workers through outsourcing. The current practice of outsourcing has the elements of trafficking in persons. Workers are brought, passports taken away, held in captive, beaten and abused with no employment. The Outsourcing mode and method of recruitment and placement of Bangladeshi workers cannot be accepted and thus disbanded.
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