Crackdown will start after grace period
Some 225 Bangladeshi workers have been detained in Malaysia on Tuesday, the first day of a nationwide crackdown on illegal foreign workers.
According to a local newspaper, the Star, the Malaysian police have picked up at least 1,565 illegal expatriates including 225 Bangladeshis in the first-day operation.
695 of the rest of the detainees are Indonesian nationals while 157 from Myanmar.
Earlier on Monday, the Malaysian government has announced that it would commence with its crackdown on undocumented migrant workers after the three-month grace period set by their home ministry expired.
“The Malaysian authorities have informed us the crackdown will start from January 21,” Bangladesh Labour Counsellor to Malaysia Mantu Kumar Biswas told the Dhaka Tribune on the same day.
On October 20, 2013, the authorities declared a three-month amnesty period for all illegal foreign workers, including Bangladeshis, to become legalised.
However, as the deadline ended, Malaysia would start crackdown from today, officials at the Bangladesh High Commission in Malaysia said.
In response to questions regarding the predicted number of illegal migrants from Bangladesh, the labour counsellor said the Malaysian authorities had not yet provided the list.
At least 400,000 to 500,000 Bangladeshis were working in Malaysia, he said.
The Bangladesh High Commission said approximately 30,000 Bangladeshis failed to become legalised.
Regarding this estimation, Minister for Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Khandker Mosharraf Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune, “We have nothing to do for those who could not become legalised, as we have done much to persuade the Malaysian authority to extend the amnesty period and the authority gave three more months”.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
