KL warns of deporting workers living in open space

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Malaysia has warned Bangladesh of deporting Bangladeshi workers living in open spaces in Kuala Lumpur if problems regarding those workers are not resolved soon.

The Bangladeshi workers living in open spaces would be deported even if they have valid work permits and travel documents, said Malaysia’s Immigration Department Enforcement Director Datuk Ishak Mohammed, reported Malaysian newspaper The Star on Saturday.

Ishak said the department could no longer compromise on the matter as the workers have been tarnishing the image of the country.

The Star reported that 150 Bangladeshi workers have been living along the riverbanks near the Damai LRT in Kuala Lumpur after leaving their hostels in Kajang, which became overcrowded.

Many of the workers are down with fever and diarrhoea. But they don’t have enough money to take treatment, one of the workers Mohammed Mukles, 20, told the newspaper.

Another Bangladeshi worker Swapan Shukur, 30, said local people had given a few of them food but some workers could not have anything for days.

Quoting another Malaysian newspaper Kosmo!, The Star on Friday reported the Bangladeshi workers were living on coconut scraps and selling empty plastic bottles they fished out of the river.

They said they had been compelled to live like this as their recruiting agents had not given them work.

Another Bangladeshi Mostak Mia said they had been staying in Malaysia for about four months. They decided to move out of their temporary home in Kajang to stay somewhere close to the Bangladesh High Commission, hoping to meet high commission officials for requesting them to arrange jobs for them.

Hundreds of Bangladeshi workers remain unemployed in Malaysia, as their recruiting agents did not provide them with jobs.

The Bangladesh High Commission had set up three shelter houses to accommodate 500-600 workers facing such problems in the south-east Asian country.

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