A former Malaysian MP has urged the government of his country to respond immediately to scathing criticism from a team of international experts over the country’s failure to protect foreign workers from exploitation, a report of the Free Malaysia Today said on Wednesday.
The ex-Malaysian MP said this following a statement of experts of the United Nations’s Human Rights Council issued on Friday which said they were dismayed by reports about the “dire humanitarian situation” faced by Bangladeshi migrant workers amid “exploitation, criminalisation and other human rights abuses”.
Ex-MP Charles Santiago described the government’s failure to respond as “appalling” and “problematic”. The reports goes as follows:
He said the report would have a major impact on the country’s ability to attract foreign investment and puts its exports at risk of being banned overseas.
“This is something that has to
be dealt with at the highest levels of government.
“You (the government) have to say what you’re going to do and how you’re going to combat this. You can’t keep quiet. That’s not an option,” the former three-term Klang MP told the Free Malaysia Today.
Santiago said the government must show political will to address the various issues raised in the UN statement.
FMT has reached out to an aide to human resources minister Steven Sim and the foreign ministry’s corporate communications department for comment.
In the statement, the UN experts said Bangladeshi migrants were being recruited by fake companies and made to pay exorbitant recruitment fees to come into Malaysia, pushing them into debt bondage.
They said many of them find upon arrival in Malaysia that the jobs they were promised are non-existent. As a result, they are often forced into overstaying, putting them at risk of arrest, detention, ill-treatment and deportation.
The report also expressed concern at the large sums of money the fraudulent recruitment generates for criminal networks operating between Malaysia and Bangladesh.
“We received reports that certain high-level officials in both governments are involved in this business or condoning it. This is unacceptable and needs to end,” they said.
The statement was issued by a team of experts led by Tomoya Obokata, Siobhan Mullally and Gehad Madi, the UN’s special rapporteurs on slavery, trafficking in persons, and human rights of migrants.
In a statement to FMT, Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s (PSM) migrant desk coordinator, Mohana Rani Rasiah, said labour migration in Malaysia has long been associated with criminal acts of fraud, collusion of high-ranking officials, and the “indecent and heartless exploitation” of migrants.
She said her party had in January put forward eight proposals to the government on how to address the issue.
Despite this, there are still numerous stories of jobless and hungry migrant workers who have been forced to work illegally, resulting in the loss of their documented status.
“This is nothing new,” she said.
“For many years, we have been proposing – without success – that labour migration into Malaysia be regulated through a comprehensive policy.
“Based on what is happening on the ground, it looks like there is no concerted effort to handle this huge crisis in a systematic way.”
Earlier on April 19, the UN experts from Geneva expressed dismay about the situation of Bangladeshi migrants in Malaysia, who had travelled there in the hope of employment after engaging in the official labour migration process.
“The situation of Bangladeshi migrants who have lived in Malaysia for several months or longer is unsustainable and undignified,” the experts said. “Malaysia needs to take urgent measures to address the dire humanitarian situation of migrants and protect them from exploitation, criminalisation and other human rights abuses.”
They noted that many migrants find on arrival in Malaysia that they do not have employment as promised and are often forced into overstaying their visas. Consequently, these migrants risk arrest, detention, ill-treatment and deportation, the experts said.
They expressed concern that large sums of money were being generated through the fraudulent recruitment of migrant workers by criminal networks operating between Malaysia and Bangladesh. Migrants were being deceived, recruited by companies that are frequently fake, and obliged to pay exorbitant recruitment fees which pushes them into debt bondage, the experts said.
“We received reports that certain high-level officials in both Governments are involved in this business or condoning it. This is unacceptable and needs to end,” the experts said. “Perpetrators of these exploitative recruitments must be held accountable,” they said, adding that so far action taken against these private businesses and fraudulent recruitment companies have been wholly insufficient, both in Bangladesh and Malaysia. “Meanwhile, vulnerable migrants have been criminalised and some have faced severe reprisals for reporting the exploitation suffered,” they said.
They urged Malaysia and Bangladesh to investigate and address the situation. “Malaysia must govern labour migration more effectively by adopting adequate safeguards,” the experts said, urging the country to fulfil its obligations under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to protect migrant workers against human rights abuses by businesses operating in Malaysia and ensure that these businesses respect human rights. Malaysia must also step up efforts to identify, protect and assist victims of exploitation, enforce existing legal protections against trafficking in persons and uphold the country’s international human rights obligations, they said.
The experts have previously engaged with the Governments of Malaysia and Bangladesh on these issues.