PORIMOL PALMA

The dream of a better life in Malaysia has turned into a nightmare for around 100 Bangladeshi migrant workers, each of whom had taken loans of around Tk 5 lakh to reach the country.

Once there, they were thrown into a squalid hostel in Sepang district in the southern part of the Malaysian state of Selangor.

Crammed together, 20-25 men share a single room, with limited access to even basic necessities like food. Their pleas for work and wages went unanswered, leaving them drowning in debt with no way out.

This crushing despair was only intensified by the sudden death of fellow worker Shafiqul Islam, who suffered a stroke on February 29.

Al-Amin (not his real name), 23, on March 20 told this correspondent, “Shafiqul and I were roommates. Each of us had borrowed large sums of money to come to Malaysia. However, upon our arrival, we quickly discovered that we had been deceived.

“Like the rest of us, he [Shafiqul] was constantly anxious. We are uncertain about how we will manage to repay the loans.”

He claims they had only received a meagre 200 Malaysian Ringgit (Tk 5,000) for food in the past seven months. “It is an attempt to just provide us with the bare minimum so that we don’t complain to the labour department.”

Al-Amin added that around 300 workers arrived in Malaysia to work for Petrazehra Berhad in October. But none of them were given jobs, granted work permits, or had their passports returned.

Around 200 of them managed to leave the hostel to seek employment or stay with friends.

The 100 who remain at the hostel sleep on the floor, mostly eat rice and lentils, and occasionally can afford eggs. Many of them have been falling ill, with no access to proper healthcare, they said.

“My blood pressure is often high. When a few of us visited the doctor two weeks ago, he only checked our pressure and gave us some medications,” said Al-Amin. He explained that the doctor could not do further check ups as they do not have passports or work permits.

He borrowed Tk 5 lakh for the job in Malaysia and took an additional Tk 60,000

SEE PAGE 2 COL 1