2,67,803 people out of 3 lakh illegal Bangladeshis have been legalised
The Malaysian government has given another chance till January 21, 2014 to some 30,000 illegal Bangladeshi workers, who had failed to get their status legalised in that country under the amnesty programme announced in 2011, for legalisation under three categories.
Expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment minister Engineer Khandker Mosharraf Hossain disclosed this to reporters at a press conference at the Probashi Kalyan Bhaban on Thursday.
“The first category comprises illegal workers who were approved under the package of the Foreign Workers Legalization — Programme 6P in 2011. They have paid the levy, but their applications are not being processed under the temporary working visit pass. The second category comprises workers who were approved under the package but did not pay the levy. The third category comprises the workers who are registered, but have not come under the process of legalisation,” Mosharraf Hossain said.
The minister further said, “Under the package, the Bangladeshi workers who were deceived by different agents, brokers or their owners, and who reported to the Malaysian police between September 1, 2011 and September 10, 2013, will get the opportunity to legalise their visa status.”
“The illegal workers will either have to go to their present employers or the Malaysian home ministry’s ‘one stop service centre’, which is supervised by the Bangladesh High Commission, for the process,” he explained.
“There is no need to use any agent or third party in this legalisation process. The workers will have to submit their registration or fingerprint (PATI) receipts, original passports and police reports at the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur,” the minister also said.
The minister further said the workers who have lost their passports would be able to collect them from the
Bangladesh High Commission in Malaysia. The minister, however, warned the workers not to seek help from any other agents or middlemen in this connection.
He further pointed out that a total of 2,67,803 people, out of approximately three lakh illegal Bangladeshis, have been legalised under the amnesty programme.
Replying to a query on bringing back some 450 Bangladeshi nationals involved in criminal offences both in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, he said, “We have talked to the governments of Saudi Arabia and Malaysia to send them back. It is a legal process and very much complicated. But both governments have been cordial in this regard and we are working on it.”
About the security hazards faced by Bangladesh workers in Libya and Iraq, he said, “It is true that there are security hazards for Bangladeshi workers there. But we are working cautiously in this regard.
We could close the market, but the Bangladeshi workers are in very high demand there. If we close the market totally, we may lose a prospective market there in future.”
About the newly passed Overseas Employment and Migrant Workers Bill, 2013, he said, “It’s an impartial law, appropriate for our times and acceptable to all. The law will allow the workers to file cases directly against the recruiting agencies involved in fraud and other irregularities.”
-With The Independent input
