DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — About 100 Bangladeshi workers employed by Malaysian companies gathered Monday to demand unpaid wages, fair compensation and an end to alleged abuses by Malaysian employers.
The Migrant Welfare Network, a group of Bangladeshi migrants based in Malaysia and Bangladesh, organized the protest outside the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.
Demonstrators said the event was organized to protest widespread mistreatment of migrant workers in Malaysia, one of Southeast Asia's richest countries. They demanded unpaid wages and compensation for 431 Bangladeshi workers who they said were exploited by two Malaysian companies, Mediceram and Kawaguchi Manufacturing.
The Associated Press could not immediately reach the companies for comment.
Many factories in Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries rely on migrant workers, often from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal, to fill labor-intensive jobs in manufacturing, plantations or construction. Local workers generally avoid such work due to poor working conditions and low wages.
The Migrant Welfare Network called on authorities in Bangladesh and Malaysia, as well as international buyers, to take immediate action to ensure workers receive wages already owed, fair compensation and “justice for systemic abuses.”
The group said in a statement Monday that a complaint of forced labor and neglect was filed by the Malaysian government against Australian company Ansell, a major Mediceram client that makes gloves for medical, industrial and household use.
A separate complaint was filed against Kawaguchi, which supplied plastic components to major Japanese companies, including Sony Group.
In May, about 280 Bangladeshi migrant workers from Kawaguchi demanded hundreds of thousands of dollars in back wages and other money owed to them after the company closed five months earlier.
Workers at Kawaguchi's Port Klang factory have filed complaints in Malaysia and Bangladesh alleging the company withheld their wages for up to eight months before closing after Sony and Panasonic Holdings Corp., two of Kawaguchi's main clients, suspended orders in response to allegations of worker abuse.
“At first they paid salaries in installments, meaning they gave 500-1,000 ringgit (about $120-$240) a month for food expenses,” said former Kawaguchi employee Omar Faruk, who began working for the manufacturer in 2022. “After withholding wages, the company started considering closure. We later filed a complaint with the Bangladesh High Commission in Malaysia.”
Harun Or Rashid Liton, who worked for Mediceram, accused the company of not paying despite the Malaysian Labor Court's ruling.
“The court ordered the company to pay us RM1,000 a month, but the company only paid the first installment and then stopped paying,” he said. “Later, we had no choice but to return to Bangladesh. Now we face serious difficulties in providing for our families.”
There have been numerous reports of abuses against Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia, and disputes between employees and companies have become a sore point in diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and Malaysia. Labor rights groups have demanded strict controls over the powerful group of recruitment agencies and middlemen that monopolize such jobs.
