Home Ministry officials are working in cohorts with several unscrupulous agents in giving work permits for foreign workers, especially from Bangladesh, for non-existent jobs here.

The agents, from bogus companies established locally, have brought in about 5,000 Bangladeshi workers legally via this channel since May 2007 and then left them stranded in Malaysia, claimed Malaysian Trades Union Congress secretary-general G Rajasekaran today.

Rajasekaran said that that MTUC was aware of the existence of at least 48 such local bogus companies that have been making money by cheating the Bangladeshi workers.

“The workers pay between RM8,000 to RM12,000 each to come and work in Malaysia,” he said in a press conference this morning.

He also revealed the names of three such local bogus companies that have brought in 234 Bangladeshi workers and left them stranded.

“Employers have to go through procedures. The case of the 234 workers indicates that the authorities didn’t do their job. I suspect there is collusion between employers and the Home Ministry officials,” he said.

“It is very a profitable business,” he added, explaining that the local foreign employee recruitment system only punished the foreign worker instead of the employer.

He added that from the money paid by the Bangladeshi workers, the local companies stand to gain RM1,000 to RM2,000 in commission from each worker. The rest of the payment goes to the agents in Bangladesh.

Coffee money for permits

On top of the large payment paid in Bangladesh, Rajasekaran said that these workers were also forced to pay to the local agents from these bogus companies here to obtain work permits.

He claimed that the average “coffee money” that was allegedly paid to home ministry officials to obtain the permits was between RM1,000 and RM1,500 per worker.

“Bogus employers (the local bogus companies) with good links in the ministry can easily get a permit for just RM500.

“The workers cough up about RM3,000 to RM3,500 for the permits on top of the money they have paid to their recruiting agents in Bangladesh. The rest of this payment goes to the bogus companies,” he said.

And the sad part is, added Rajasekaran, these workers then find themselves without any work here as promised.

Rajasekaran also said that the Bangladeshi trade union has complained to the MTUC on the manner the Bangladeshis were being exploited here.

“This sort of thing tarnishes the image of the nation. The government cannot continue to keep a blind eye on these cases.

“These people are brought in and mistreated,” he added.

No action from government

Also present at the press conference was Club Employees Union Peninsular Malaysia industrial relations officer Abdul Aziz Ismail who stated that complaints on the exploitation of foreign workers have been sent to various people, including the Malaysian Human Rights Commission, the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Immigration department.

He added that he had also submitted a letter dated Nov 4, 2008 on the modus operandi of human trafficking of foreign workers to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia and Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim

Aziz also showed copies of the reports made over the years and added that no action has been taken by any of them.

Rajasekaran also revealed that MTUC would lodge a report to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the possible corruption of government officials with regards to this matter

Four Bangladeshi workers who had been cheated by these local bogus companies were also present at the press conference.

Rajasekaran said that they were currently doing odd jobs illegally and faced the risk of being caught by the authorities.

 

Source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/100571 (MTUC: Time to act on exploitation of foreign workers)