Like Vagabonds Migrants Caught In Quota Fraud Travel Around To Seek Work

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Breathing in thick fumes from roasting coffee and boiling sugar, Mohamad Kazi’s work conditions were a far cry from the cleaning job in a highland resort he was promised when he signed up to come work in Malaysia.
But having taken on RM17,000 in debt to leave Bangladesh for greener pastures, this work in a coffee factory in Cheng, Malacca was his only way to make the money back.
“We were wearing slippers, without gloves or masks, and handling a boiling mixture of 35kg of sugar and 3kg of coffee which we poured into large steel vessels, waited for it to cool, and had to pound the substance into powder.
“The air felt thick and bitter. By the second day, we all fell ill and experienced difficulty breathing,” he said.
The workers demanded better personal protective equipment like boots and masks, but instead, Kazi said, the factory paid them the day’s wages and told them to leave.
Kazi and a group of Bangladeshi workers said they were referred to this employer by an agent from their home country.
In fact, when they showed up at the factory, the management didn’t even know they were coming, making them wait outside for a whole day before being directed to a nearby house where they were to stay during their employment.
That was Friday. On Monday, they reported for work.
Kazi is not his real name. He spoke to Malaysiakini on condition of anonymity fearing backlash from the company which brought him into the country.
The group is among the hundreds of workers brought in by the company Star Domain Resources Sdn Bhd, which Malaysiakini found to have used fake contracts and loopholes in the system to defraud the government into granting it quotas to bring in some 980 migrant workers into Malaysia.
In just one syndicate uncovered by Malaysiakini, a group of six companies obtained quotas to recruit a total of 1,625 migrant workers for the services sector in 2022.
Star Domain and the other companies did not respond to Malaysiakini’s request for comment.
Many of the workers, who were brought in using the quotas won through fake contracts, were housed in hostels in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, and were told they were free to leave if they wanted to.
Most waited for months to be placed in employment, fearing that they could be arrested if they left the hostel without their passports.
The passports were held by the Labour Department, which “rescued” them from deplorable lodgings months before and promised to place them in jobs, the workers said.
“After five months, we got tired of listening to excuses and our employer and agent gave us permission to find jobs on our own and we left the security of our lodgings in Nilai,” Kazi said.
Coffee factory: We were ready to employ them
Although Kazi said they were referred to the coffee factory through an agent in Bangladesh, the coffee factory management told Malaysiakini the workers were sent to them by the Labour Department.
A spokesperson, who declined to be named, said the company was prepared to receive 16 workers from Star Domain Resources, referred to them by the Labour Department, but only four remained.
“The migrant workers are fussy and asked to work for only five months. However, given the need to renew their work permits and cover the levy for a new year, this request seemed unreasonable.
“We were happy to give them jobs in order to give a salary but not all stayed,” he said.
He also refuted claims the workers were not provided protective equipment, noting that the factory is producing goods for the export market and must comply with strict standards.
“We are preparing food and we follow all the regulations,” the spokesperson said.
The four workers who remained had arrived in Malaysia on a three-year contract with Star Domain but have now settled for a one-year contract with the new employer, upon their request, the spokesperson said.
‘Permission to job hop’
The coffee factory job was Kazi’s second since arriving in Malaysia. Before that, with the help of some Bangladeshi friends already employed here, Kazi and eight others found jobs in a glove factory in Senawang.
But it only lasted 22 days. He said the factory didn’t pay them or formalise the employment, so they left.
When Malaysiakini met Kazi on Aug 29, he showed the reporter a seven-page colour printout featuring the Malaysian coat of arms on the first page and several others inside. It was given to him by his recruitment agent from Bangladesh.
Kazi, who could not understand or read Bahasa Malaysia, was told this “official” form allowed him to seek a new employer. He only needed the new employer to fill out that form.
“(My agent) told us that with that form, we were free to go anywhere in Malaysia to look for employment,” Kazi told Malaysiakini through a translator.
Worker holding a form they believed allows them to job hopThe form was titled “Borang Maklumat Majikan Baharu. Permohonan Pertukaran Majikan Penggajian Pekerja-pekerja Asing JTKSM” (Information Form for New Employers. Application to Change Employers of Foreign Workers, Labour Department Peninsular Malaysia).
It wasn’t the free pass to job hop Kazi thought it was, nor was it permission to move about in Malaysia without their passports.
But with this form, Kazi and eight other Bangladeshi workers started moving around Malaysia with all their belongings, seeking employment.
Migrants on a job hunt
Lugging their large suitcases, carry-ons, backpacks, and table fans, the group looked like displaced refugees and out of place on the streets of Kuala Lumpur - until they arrived outside the Bangladesh High Commission.
This year, the High Commission unwittingly hosted mass assemblies of hundreds of Bangladeshi workers arriving by the busloads, demanding answers to their state of unemployment.
The workers held the High Commission responsible for their role in attesting to claims of job availability before their arrival.
Kazi and other Bangladeshi workers at the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala LumpurThe Bangladeshi workers were not the only ones.
Last month, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail announced that the country was experiencing an oversupply of 120,000 migrant workers in the service sector alone.
He attributed the substantial oversupply to permit abuse.
The Home Ministry and Human Resources Ministry both manage migrant worker recruitment through an inscrutable process that was also red-flagged in the Auditor-General’s Report 2022 last month.
While Saifuddin has remained mum on the scandal, Human Resources Ministry V Sivakumar said the ministry would investigate allegations of trafficking concerning the oversupply.
He also blamed errant employers who abused their worker import quotas and was silent on the role of the government agencies which approved the quotas despite the jobs being non-existent.
“The loophole is they already have the quota and they bring in the workers without having jobs for them,” Sivakumar said.
Human Resources Minister V Sivakumar (left) and Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution IsmailBut the issue is not new or isolated.
Following the Malaysiakini exposé, UK-based labour advocate Andrew Wallis said modern slavery is an existing and “significant illicit industry” in Malaysia.
Wallis, who founded migrant labour rights group Unseen, said the industry generates an estimated profit of US$500 billion per annum worldwide, with some 212,000 victims of modern slavery in Malaysia at any given time.
Threat of becoming undocumented
Before reaching the High Commission, Kazi and his friends began receiving threatening voice messages from someone representing Star Domain, warning them against proceeding to the High Commission.
“He informed our agent that he would make a police report that we ran away and would cancel our work permit,” said Kazi.
The Star Domain representative also allegedly told them the Labour Department was holding their passports to find them new employers.
Although under a three-year contract with Star Domain, the group faced uncertainty as their one-year work permit had only six months left.
Despite this, they decided to push on and lodged a complaint with the High Commission in late August.
Migrant workers brought in without jobs showing their empty wallets while waiting for employmentIn a recent study of 40 migrant workers, the International Organization for Migration found workers came to Malaysia through legal and established channels of recruitment but became undocumented because they faced exploitative employment conditions.
They include issues like wage and remuneration, poor living conditions, lack of health and safety, and long work hours.
In many cases, these conditions forced workers to leave their workplace, rendering them undocumented.
The 40 Nepali, Bangladeshi, and Indonesian migrants surveyed for the study had been working in Malaysia between nine and 14 years.
Throughout their career here, some experienced becoming undocumented twice while others had become undocumented once.
30 dead Nepali workers each month
In the six months since his arrival to Malaysia, Kazi experienced the gamut of migrant exploitation including having to pay recruitment fees, months of unpaid wages, threats of police detention, and poor working conditions, despite his legal status.
Amendments to the Employment Act were meant to address issues of forced labour that remain inaccessible to the migrant workforce, who do not know the local language, laws, and procedures.
Nepal Embassy in Kuala Lumpur Labour Counselor Bholanath GuragainOne way to solve this, said Nepal Embassy in Kuala Lumpur Labour Counselor Bholanath Guragain, is to link migrant workers directly to enforcement agencies.
This, he said, could save lives.
“We are dispatching 30, and in some months over 40, deceased individuals to Nepal every month,” Bholanath revealed, his statement reminiscent of statistics from four years ago.
“I don’t know if there are such mechanisms (to connect workers to enforcement agencies) in place, but due to the lack thereof, the number of deaths is on the rise.”
He said some workers commit suicide while others met with accidents, and it was conceivable the accidents were due to mental distress from their work conditions.
He said workers found themselves in distressing situations when they were unaware of local rules, regulations, and cultural nuances.
READ MORE: How migrant quota fraudster hides behind shell companies, big wigs
First salary after nine months
After lodging a complaint with the Bangladesh High Commission, Kazi and his friends decided to return to the hostel in Nilai to wait it out.
They were scared they could be arrested and deported, as undocumented migrants, if Star Domain cancelled their work permits.
Soon after, their passports were returned to them by a Star Domain representative, and a month after they lodged the complaint to the embassy, Kazi’s group was divided among two new employers.
Nine, including Kazi, were employed in the cleaning sector while six were sent to a manufacturing factory in Port Klang, Selangor.
In November, nine months after he arrived in Malaysia, Kazi received his first paycheck of RM2,650, which included overtime and wages for extra days worked.
“I sent home RM2,350 and kept RM300 for food and necessities. I am grateful and happy,” he said.
Workers caught in the migrant worker import quota fraud gather at their hostel canteenHe is now a cleaner at a cafeteria in a major transportation hub. The work is exactly what Kazi had signed up for in Bangladesh.
But despite the relief, there is still a lot of uncertainty.
His contract, which Malaysiakini sighted, does not state how long he will be employed.
There is also no indication if he will be compensated for the eight months he spent unemployed or looking for a job.
Still, he is one of the lucky ones. - Mkini

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