He found it too humiliating to talk about. Tak boleh cakap, banyak malu-lah , said Hasan (not his real name), his palm covering half his face in a gesture of shame. When coaxed further, he revealed that he had been made to strip, sometimes in front of female officers, while held at the Semenyih detention camp for illegal immigrants.

Hasan doesnt know why he was arrested as he had produced the necessary documentation, or so he thought. He was detained for three months. When he asked the reason for his arrest, the officers had simply said, Get your boss to bail you out.

Has abuse of illegal immigrants become so commonplace in this country that reading this article you find yourself saying, Ive heard of all this before, so whats new? Well, heres some news for you: Malaysia may soon be on the world map of shame for the slovenly treatment of its migrant workers.

Two graduates from the International Islamic University (UIA) have embarked on a study of the condition of Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia. The evaluative studies aim to find out the adverse affects of working conditions for Bangladeshi migrant workers in this country. The papers will be made public in the coming months.

Initial studies conducted last month reveal that up to 90 percent of Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia return home empty-handed. This same 90 percent go home suffering from depression, financial hardship or both. Only about 10 percent return to Bangladesh with any money saved.

Ironically, this 10 percent are more often those who work illegally. They can afford to be choosy and simply move along as they are not tied down to their employers.

Maimed and penniless

Earlier this week, a Bangladeshi worker was put on a plane home after the losing three and a half fingers of his left hand in a work-related accident.

Sayeed (not his real name) had spent RM10,000 (about 150,000 Bangladeshi Taka) to come and work in Malaysia. He had worked here for four years with proper documentation. After his accident, Sayeed was laid off and thus became undocumented or illegal.

Like him, many others had mortgaged land, sold homes and borrowed money to pay the recruitment agent who sends them to Malaysia to work. They go away leaving parents, wives and children for they have been lured by bait of easy money.

The agents assure their potential clients that they will recover the RM10,000 spent in preparing to come to Malaysia in a matter of six or seven months. Additionally, they are told that they will be allowed to stay up to six or seven years.

Nothing is further from the truth, said Kareem (not his real name), one of the two conducting the above-mentioned study of Bangladeshi migrant workers. The workers came here because they were told that they could send home as much as 20,000 to 25,000 taka. This amounts to between RM1,200 and RM1,600 (100 taka is equal to RM6.47), which is a reasonable lure for migrants from an impoverished Third World country

However, in reality, most migrant workers are only able to send home a paltry RM200 which is hardly enough to support one person let alone their entire families left behind.

On top of this, up to 60 percent of migrant workers are not able to send home any money at all because they do not make enough to begin with. Only about 10 percent send money home regularly.

The remaining 30 percent are in a limbo — they cannot return home as they had spent a lot to get here in the first place. They dont get paid enough in their legal jobs but if they quit they will be termed illegal workers or more correctly undocumented workers.

An honest living

Bangladeshi workers do not intend to stay in Malaysia permanently. There are simply here to earn an honest living and return home.

Malaysians think we are here because we want food ... they treat us with disdain, said an irate Kareem. I would not advise any Bangladeshi to come and work in Malaysia, he declared.

The living conditions here for them are shameful, he said, and many are suffering from depression because of it.

He said he was surprised that Malaysians failed to realise that disregarding workers welfare only leads to decreased productivity.

In the course of their study, Kareem and fellow UIA graduate Ismail (not his real name) have gathered that the squalid conditions migrant workers are housed in are more the rule than the exception in this country. A case in point is a tyre factory in Petaling Jaya where up to 40 migrant workers are housed in a two cargo containers, one placed on top of the other to minimise space for their quarters.

There is hardly room to sleep let alone live, said Ismail.

Aegile Fernandez, Migrant Desk Programme co-ordinator with womens and migrant workers rights group Tenaganita says, Malaysians build better kennels for their dogs than they do homes for migrant workers.

The Bangladeshis who are in Malaysia to work are not beggars as many in this country seem to think. They come from middle-class families, as only they can afford to come overseas, said Ismail. We are not used to bad living conditions as Malaysians think, he added.

Having put up with these hardships, many Bangladeshis now want to go home. They have lost more money than they have made. And many are in a quandary as they have no money to buy a plane ticket home. Some will be forced to go home as paupers. They will not be accepted by their families who will see them as failures. And some go home maimed, like Sayeed who lost his fingers, said Kareem.

Sayeed did not receive any compensation. Nevertheless, the staff at Tenaganita put together a small amount of money for him to take home. In his condition, he will not be able to get a decent job, said Ismail.

Illegals better off

When a Bangladeshi worker decides to leave his initial job that he procured legally, he is free to find work that will pay him well. Employers, unsurprisingly, treat undocumented workers better.

Migrant workers who are laid off, fired or having simply run away to escape oppressing conditions, thus becoming undocumented, are also able to make a better living compared with those who work legally.

It is this group of migrant workers — the 10 percent — who find that they have money to send home.

Given this scenario it is unsurprising that migrant workers choose to become undocumented.

These workers say there are few disadvantages to being illegals. If they are caught by then police, a RM50 pay-off gets them out of a tight situation. Anyway, they point out, even if legally employed, their passports are held by the employer. Migrant workers carry photostated copies of the document. When stopped by police, they still have to pay up. So why bother being documented at all? they ask.

Being undocumented also means that instead of being forced to live in ramshackle wooden structures with no electricity and running water they can now choose to live where they want. And the extra wages comes in handy for this purpose.

Legal workers find themselves living in quarters that are dirty and very hot in the day, especially if it is a cargo container. Very few companies, factories or plantations provide decent living arrangements for their migrant workers. Many find themselves sleeping on the bare floor, and there are never enough mattresses

At times, shift workers are forced to take turns to sleep on the same mattress that their friends have just woken up from. Given this flagrant apathy of employers, its no wonder Bangladeshis are inadvertently forced to quit their legal jobs to be deemed illegal or undocumented workers.

Coming to Malaysia

The modus operandi for Bangladeshi migrants to Malaysia is for them to arrive here on a one-month visitors visa with letters of job offers. Documentation processing is done for them by their employers. In the event that these workers are retrenched they become undocumented.

Given this scenario, employers most often have the upper hand and this opportunity is abused by neglecting the workers welfare. The employers are also well aware that the Bangladeshis have nowhere to turn to and fear being detained and sent to deportation camps.

When they arrive, the migrant workers have proper and valid passports. However, employers will then collect their passports to enable the processing of work permits. But even after all documentation is done, the passports are held back by the employers.

Although the Immigration Act does not allow for this, it is nevertheless done with the departments oblique knowledge. The employers commonly used excuse is that migrant workers are undisciplined and may run away.

Migrant workers are thus left at the mercy of their employers. There have been cases of employers claiming that workers passports kept in the office have been stolen.

But a more likely scenario would be that the passports were being sold on the black market, said Fernandez.