Malaysia pledges action on plight of stranded Bangladeshi workers
The Human Resources Ministry of Malaysia will conduct nationwide operations to safeguard human rights of migrant workers there.
The Malaysian government has pledged action in response to a migrant rights activist's letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the plight of Bangladeshi migrants working in the country.
The Human Resources Ministry will conduct nationwide operations as part of this move, reports Malaysian news portal Free Malaysia Today (FMT) on Sunday (5 November).
Human Resource Minister V Sivakumar said the move aims to ensure no foreign workers are caught in debt bondage or housed in unfavourable conditions, as alleged in the letter.
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"I view this matter seriously as I want to prevent actions outside of the law. We want to avoid forced labour occurring in this country," he said after attending the third series of the ministry's Jelajah Madani in Gombak today.
Human rights activist Andy Hall wrote a letter to OHCHR, a body under the UN Human Rights Council in Switzerland, alleging that hundreds of Bangladeshi workers were struggling in debt bondage and without jobs in this country.
