25. Bangladeshis at Airport

The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) today called on the government to revert to its old policy of allowing employers to recruit foreign workers directly on their own in accordance with their needs.

This was to ease the present high number of foreign workers now stranded in Malaysia without jobs because agents who brought them in could not emplace them, said MTUC Secretary-General G. Rajasekaran.

He told Bernama that since the government changed its policy in 2002, it had issued 220 permits to agents to recruit foreign workers.

Rajasekaran claimed that these agents had abused the permits by bringing in more workers than there were jobs available in the country for them.

He said some 3,000 workers from Bangladesh holding legal documents were now stranded at the KL International Airport in Sepang because the agents could not find jobs for them. These workers are being housed at the airport's car park and guarded by officers and men from the People's Volunteer Corps (Rela).

Rajasekaran said the Human Resources Ministry should take immediate steps to overcome the plight of these innocent workers and ensure that such abuses did not occur in future - Bernama.