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Repression of Illegal Immigrants
Special Correspondent:
Panic seized the Bangladeshi community in Malaysia after the country launched a new wave of repression to arrest and expel illegal immigrants.
Malaysian immigration police have so far arrested more than 800 Bangladeshi undocumented workers. Among them, 250 were arrested during the last crackdown that began on June 30 after the expiry of the rehiring program.
But the reasons why Bangladeshi undocumented workers have not taken advantage of the rehire program proposed by the Malaysian government years ago for illegal migrant workers.
It is alleged that most undocumented Bangladeshi have paid their agents to take advantage of the facility. But many of them did not seize the opportunity because their agents cheated with them. Others have not managed to manage the money.
The role played by the Bangladesh Mission in Malaysia in protecting ill-fated workers who have sold goods or borrowed money to obtain employment in Malaysia is not understood. Reports galore that mission officials are not serious about protecting workers. They are busy making their own fortune.
Currently, it is estimated that eight Bangladeshi lakhs work in various sectors in Malaysia and among them, three lakh are undocumented.
"One of the reasons for the expulsion of illegal immigrants is that the Malaysian authorities must spend more than 25 million Malaysian ringgits (RMs) a year for the meals of illegal immigrants held in 13 depots. Department of Immigration at the national level. "Mustafar Ali, chief executive of the Malaysian Immigration Department said yesterday at a local information portal Free Malaysia Today. On 30 June, Mustafar reported that 155,680 irregular migrants working for 26,957 employers had applied for regularization, and 140,746 had been regularized.
However, this was only 23% of the 600,000 targeted cards (to be given to regular workers Most of the applicants came from Bangladesh, followed by Indonesia, Myanmar and Nepal, said Mustafar
Mustafar also expressed his disappointment at the attitude of employers on the issue.
He stated that after the deadline, the department would arrest undocumented migrants and sue their employers, including those who employed immigrants with student passes, under the Immigration Act of 1959/1963. "We have nothing to do for them when they are n & # 39; "They have not taken advantage of the Malaysian government's amnesty," said Namita Halder, secretary of the Ministry of Welfare Expats and Employment Abroad yesterday
. rehiring two years ago creating opportunity for Bangladeshi workers without-pa Bangladesh's piers to become legal. What can we do when they have missed the opportunity?
While they were talking to the New Nation by telephone, Bangladeshi people living in the Malaysian capital said that the police had already attacked Kota Raya, an area frequented by foreign workers, and arrested many migrants, including Bangladeshi. hours, amid widespread fears of arrests and deportations among thousands of irregular migrants. Many of them had paid agents for their legalization as part of the rehire program, but they were duped.
The crackdown on illegal migrants began after the new Malaysian government, which came to power in May, announced that it wanted to reduce dependency. The previous Malaysian government had licensed three companies through which undocumented foreign workers could be registered for regularization. According to the regulations, employers were supposed to renew the work permit of their workers.
However, rights activists in Malaysia criticized the crackdown by saying that many foreign workers in Malaysia have faced difficult times and become undocumented because of abuses by employers, union officials and brokers. "Even the rehire program, which began in early 2016, was not transparent as it involved brokers and sub-agents in the regularization process," said Adrian Pereira, North South's executive director. Initiative. Adrian said the Malaysian government should give migrants enough time and put in place a transparent system for their regularization.
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