Fortune-seeker returns as broke, ends up in hospital

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Monir Hossain went to Malaysia in July last year with high hopes of earning a lot, but after his return on Thursday, he was hospitalised yesterday for severe weakness caused by over work and lack of adequate food.

He could not send a single penny to his family in Daudkandi in Comilla; rather he had to survive on little food as the employer paid him lump sum salaries after four months and none at all for the rest five months.

Monir is one of the 65 Bangladeshis, who went to Malaysia on July 25-26 last year through recruiting agency Sunbeam Travels Ltd to work at JN Power Construction SDNBHD.

However, after their arrival in Malaysia they were divided into a few groups and employed in different companies.

Earlier, several hundred workers returned home under similar circumstances from Malaysia, while thousands still are reportedly facing similar or worse fate there.

Failing to cope with 12-hour work a day, Monir and 21 others fled their workplace and stayed in a shelter house of migrants’ rights organisation Tenaganita in Kuala Lumpur.

Eighteen others are still living at the shelter home, while four returned home recently and are suffering from various physical problems.

“I am too weak to tell you what happened to us in Malaysia. My legs have swelled and I cannot stand up for more than five minutes. I also got gastric,” said Monir who is now undergoing treatment at Gouripur Health Complex in Daudkandi.

His father Mohammad Habib said he had spent over Tk 3 lakh to send his son abroad who brought back not a single penny.

“Now he has lost one year and become so weak that he cannot even stand,” he told The Daily Star over phone.

“We demand punishment to those responsible for my brother’s condition. While he was in Malaysia, we were under tremendous tension. Will he be fully cured and able to work with full strength again?” asked Salma, Monir’s sister.

His fellow worker Nasir returned home on May 18. He told The Daily Star, “Each of us paid Tk 2.2 lakh for a job with monthly salary of Malaysian Ringit [RM] 900 [equivalent to Tk 18,000], but we got only RM 300-500 for four months.”

“From the fifth month, the employer stopped paying us, but we had to work twelve hours a day,” he said, adding that such a situation forced them to escape.

He said 22 of the 65 workers took shelter in the migrants’ rights organisation, but he knew nothing about the others.

Nasir went on to say, “We experienced an inhuman life with inadequate meals and beatings by the employers’ men for protesting non-payment.”

Most of the workers have become weak physically and mentally for passing months half-fed and living under serious tension about future.

Like Monir’s father, the families of these workers who hail from Daudkandi, Homna, Titas and Chandina in Comilla are passing days under utter anxiety.

Abdul Kader, father of a worker now in Malaysia, on May 11 applied to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training on behalf of these cheated workers to arrange their return and compensation.

In the application, he said they went to the office of the recruiting agency, Sunbeam Travels, but the agency in reply denied having any responsibilities.

Contacted, Sunbeam Travels Managing Director Mohammad Salamat Ullah denied having any complaint saying he did not know anything of the matter.

He told The Daily Star Sunbeam Travels just helped the workers process visas that were purchased by Nurul Amin, who hailed from Comilla and now lives in Malaysia. He is brother of Yahia, broker of these 65 workers, he added.

“Tell me what we can do if the Malaysian employers cheat our people and do not pay salaries. It is our embassy that attested the job approvals and can help the workers solve their problems,” Salamat said.

“Who is responsible for such a bad condition of our children? The government? The employers in Malaysia? We don’t understand many things…. We want that our sons are back home,” Abdul Kader said.

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