The Malaysian employers responsible for mistreating Bangladeshi workers will be brought to justice, the country's human resources minister, Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn, said yesterday.

"It the complaints of the Bangladeshi workers were legitimate, the employers would be brought to court and blacklisted from hiring foreign workers," he told a press conference referring to the complaints of around 770 Bangladeshis who went to Bangladesh high commission to Kuala Lumpur for redress of exploitation by their employers in Johor, Malaysia.

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"I have asked the manpower department officials to have a look at the complaints. If it is true that there are employers who recruited the foreign workers, but did not pay the due salaries, we will not compromise with them the employers). They will be penalised. We will bring them to court," Onnsaid.

The minister expressed his disappointment over the situation as it projects a negative image of the country and said that the employers could be charged under the Employment Act.

The 770 disgruntled Bangladeshi workers alleged that they' had arrived in Malaysia between January and April this year and were employed at four textile factories with the promise of a monthly salary of Malaysian Ringgit (RM) 1,200 each. However, each worker wound up receiving only RM 200 or less a month.

Meanwhile, reports are surfacing in Malaysia about the existence of organised syndicates of outsourcing companies who bring in foreign workers into the country using the names of unsuspectingfactories.

These foreign workers, given false promises by recruiting agencies in their home countries, are eventually exploited by different employers. Thousands of such Bangladeshi workers, despite possessing valid visas on their arrival in Kuala Lumpur, have been stranded at Kuala Lumpur International Airport for weeks as their employers did not show up to receive them, said sources concerned.

Malaysian newspaper The Star yesterday reported that the ploy of a syndicate was discovered as a factory, Rightool Metal Industry Sdn Bhd in Sungai Petani, found out that its name was used to bring in 20 workers from Bangladesh.

CT Tew; managing director of the factory, said he was taken aback when labour department officials went to his office yesterday morningand told him that the 20 foreign workers, purportedly brought in by his factory, were among the 3,000 Bangladeshis still stranded at Kuala Lumpur InternationalAirport.

Denying the allegation. Tew said. "The only time we applied to the authorities for foreign workers was in 2005. Approval was given to hire 15 workers, but we recruited only nine Nepalese."

Senior Assistant Director Mohd Jarjis Abdullah of Labour Department in Sungai Petani city said his officers revealed that no approval was given to Rightool Metal for hiring the Bangladeshis. I le advised the company to lodge a complaint with police.