Duped, tortured, jailed the tale of a dream job

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Manpower frauds confined a Bangladeshi job seeker to a secret place in Malaysia for one month and tortured him for payment.

Abdur Razzak, the victim, returned home on December 5 after languishing in a Malaysian detention camp for four months for immigration rules violation. His ordeal came to light at a news briefing organised by Rapid Action Battalion (Rab 3) at its Tikatuli office yesterday.

Following a complaint from Razzak’s family, Rab 3 took Razzak in their custody. Rab 3 is currently investigating the allegations of fraud against manpower con man Abul Bashar and his cohorts.

In the meantime, Rab yesterday arrested Abdul Bashar from Paltan area. During the arrest, Bashar claimed that he worked for Rana Travels. However, the travel agency has denied the claim.

Although an employment visa is required for jobs overseas, Abul Bashar collected Tk 80,000 in advance from Abdur Razzak and sent him to Malaysia on July 29 on a one-month tourist visa with the condition that Razzak would pay the remainder, Tk 1.2 lakh, to Bashar once he gets a job there.

Razzak told The Daily Star at the Rab 3 office that Bashar’s brother Titu confined him to a house after he reached Malaysia and tortured him physically to make his family back in Bangladesh pay the remainder of the money to Bashar.

“Though they didn’t get me a job there, Titu and his three associates pressurised me to ask my family pay them Tk 1.2 lakh saying that I’ve got a job,” Razzak told the journalists at the news briefing.

“As I refused to comply with their demand, they often beat me up tying me to a chair,” he said adding that the frauds also snatched his passport and other documents.

His family finally had to make some payment to Bashar as he gave in to the torture at one point and requested his family to make the payment. Razzak however could not immediately say how much his family had paid to Bashar.

Upon receiving complaints from Razzak’s family about the ordeal, Rab 3 asked Bashar to make arrangements for bringing Razzak back home.

Bashar’s brother Titu then provided a fake passport to Razzak under the name of Motaleb. As Razzak made an attempt to come home with that passport, he was arrested at the airport in Malaysia.

The authorities sent him to a detention camp where he was detained for four months in a miserable condition without adequate supply of foods and water. He had to share a single room with 70 to 80 detainees at the camp.

Around 700 Bangladeshis were also detained in that camp, Razzak told The Daily Star adding that many other Bangladeshis are being detained in around 10 different detention camps in Malaysia.

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