'270 Bangladeshi workers cheated'

A company is believed to have cheated 270 Bangadeshi workers of more than RM2 million and taken their passports, reports New Straits Times.

The workers had reportedly approached the company to help them find jobs and apply to the immigration department’s rehiring programme for work permits.

Some 50 Bangladeshi workers representing the 270 victims lodged a police report and held a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, said the newspaper.

The Bangladesh workers were said to have asked the authorities to take action against the company and retrieve their passports.

One of the victims, Mohamad Alagir, was quoted to have said that most of them started dealing with the company in March last year.

He was said to have alleged that the company had asked them to hand over their passports and RM8,000 per head for the application.

“The company promised to help us look for jobs and apply for a working permit from the immigration department. However, it is more than a year now and nothing has happened.”

According to New Straits Times, Alagir said he and his friends from Johor, Kelantan, Pahang, Selangor, Perak, Penang, Melaka and Negri Sembilan had lodged police reports and filed complaints with the Bangladesh high commission.

He told the media that they were living in fear because they did not have their passports and that the company had refused to return their passports.

The newspaper quoted another victim, Imran Haz Uzzal, as saying that most of them had worked in Malaysia for more than five years and had entered the country legally through other agents.

He was quoted to have said that they started having problems when they approached a company in Bandar Baru Bangi to help them get jobs and renew their working permits.

“We hope the authorities will intervene and help us.”