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No job or no work permit for many

Excessive workers sent to Malaysia only to make quick money

PORIMOL PALMA, back from Malaysia
Unlicensed brokers from Bangladesh living in Malaysia for long have joined hands with some Malaysian companies for quick bucks by hiring excessive workers from Bangladesh only to leave them jobless and push them into penury.
These brokers influence the Malaysian employers or outsourcing companies to
secure more job approvals from the Malaysian home ministry and also the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur to attest those approvals.
Moreover, some of them who married Malays make their spouses or their relatives to set up companies to hire Bangladeshi workers and supply them to other employers to make easy money.
However, finally they fail to manage jobs for all.
A large numbers of Bangladeshis have no jobs. Many also don't have valid work permits or even passports. And almost 100 percent workers have some sort of problems in Malaysia," admits a broker.
Since August 2006, around 4 lakh Bangladeshi fortune seekers went to Malaysia.
lalking to The Daily Star at a Bangladeshi restaurant in Jalan Hang Kasturi in Kuala Lumpur, the broker said, "From previous experience we thought we could manage jobs when workers arrive in Malaysia. But we have recently failed to do so."
According to brokers and other sources, there are around 5,000 such Bangladeshi brokers in Malaysia. Some of them maintain contacts in high levels including politicians and government high-ups.
"We ourselves told the companies to get more job approvals from the government. We told them we'll manage attestation of approval by the Bangladesh mission," says the broker, who terms himself a "representative".
These brokers also influence the employers that they would not need to pay levy to get approvals; rather the brokers would pay it for them.
As per the Malaysian rules, employers pay levy to hire foreign workers. Once the workers join work, they monthly pay it to the employers. But in the case of Bangladesh, the levy money is collected from the workers through recruiting agencies before they are employed.
Once employers secure job approvals and get those attested by the Bangladesh mission. the brokers sell those to the recruiting agencies in Bangladesh.
"To get approvals we need to pay... then there is our profit. That's why the cost of workers to get jobs in Malaysia is so high," the broker adds. Workers on average pay Tk 2 lakh though the government-fixed amount is only Tk 84,000.
To hire workers from Bangladesh in 2006, Malaysia introduced outsourcing companies', which can hire Bangladeshi workers not more than 50 in number to supply to a company and get commissions from the workers' salaries.
As per the Malaysian laws, employing companies can also directly recruit Bangladeshi workers but not less than 50 in a company.
There are 277 such outsourcing companies, which have job contracts with the workers that they will be paid minimum RM 400, whether they have jobs or not, and in case of overtime they will get RM 700 or more.
But these companies fail to provide jobs to many workers because of hiring more workers than the actual demand.
"If one employing company says it does not need workers, the outsourcing companies look for other companies. But transferring workers from one to another company requires signing of job contracts," says an official at the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur.
Many workers who went to Malaysia for jobs under contracts with outsourcing companies, however, told The Daily Star such companies transferred them to other companies without signing contracts. As a result, despite their work, they were sometimes paid or provided with food and sometimes not. Many even fled the workplaces failing to bear inhumane work condition with no pays.
As the authorities did not hold the outsourcing companies accountable despite their foul play, many employing companies found such labour supply scheme very profitable and started hiring Bangladeshi workers.
"For this type of employers to hire workers, Bangladeshi brokers play a key role. We influence companies to get more approvals and the high commission (of Bangladesh] for attestation," says a broker who has been living in Malaysia for over 15 years.
The brokers admit that they are more responsible for today's horrible situation for the Bangladeshis in Malaysia. At the same time, they say tire recruiting agencies or the Bangladesh High Commission took no responsibility in checking genuineness of the jobs.
"The high commission has no control over us. It even cannot identify who work for which employers or recruiting agencies. This is because these brokers have no licences and one broker works for many employers and agencies," a broker observes.
Talat Mahmud Khan, labour counsellor of Bangladesh I ligh Commission in Kuala Lumpur, said: "The middlemen take money from both sides — recruiting agencies and the employers but don't do the real work."