Over 200 migrant workers who possessed flight tickets to leave Malaysia yesterday in the wake of a nationwide crackdown on undocumented migrants were not allowed to leave, claimed a non-governmental organisation today.

Half of the workers, predominantly Bangladeshis, were not issued boarding passes by an airline while the rest, who were given their boarding passes by another airline, were detained by immigration officers at the passport control centre.

Contacted today, Tenaganita (migrants rights group) executive director Irene Fernandez said the migrants who are still at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) remain in the dark over their fate.

"They are planning to stay on here (at KLIA) until they can get a flight out. They have not received any news from their diplomatic missions as well," said Fernandez who visited the migrants to provide them food and drinks as well as to obtain more information on their situation.

She said there is a small number of Indian and Indonesian nationals among the group and the stranded migrants have parked themselves at the airport's public area situated on the departure floor.

"They are kind of detained there as they are not allowed to travel home. If they step out of the airport they will be arrested," she added in reference to the crackdown.

The crackdown on all undocumented foreigners began yesterday and is expected to continue till the authorities have rounded up some 400,000 left in Malaysia and deport them to their countries of origin.

Little option

The government had granted an amnesty period, till Feb 28, to undocumented foreigners to leave without being detained for lack of proper travel documentation.

Fernandez said, via her communications with the Bangladeshi High Commission, that the immigration office in KLIA is waiting for instructions from higher authorities before acting on the situation.

"When I spoke to the high commissioner, he said he was under the impression that the (Malaysian) government would allow them out on the next flight. However, nothing is certain yet," she added.

Fernandez informed malaysiakini that most of the migrants' travel documents had expired on Feb 28, the day before the crackdown. According to her, the workers had to wait to leave at the last minute as they had little option.

"Some had to wait till the end of the month for their employers to pay them their wages and subsequently have enough money to purchase tickets home. Some had to wait for family and friends to transfer money here," she added.

There have been numerous complaints of migrants not receiving their due wages from employers.

Malaysian employers and labour agents have also been known to keep migrant workers' travel documents such as passports and only release them upon termination of service.

Some employers or agents, said Tenaganita, do not return these documents to the workers at all.

Playing dirty

Meanwhile, a press statement from local non-governmental organisation Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) slammed the move by the immigration and airline company in denying the migrants' travel.

"The immigration department is playing dirty," read the title in the statement which went on to reveal details of the situation.

Contacted later, Suaram coordinator S Arutchelvan claimed that the authorities were acting in bad faith and were detaining the group just to "boost its numbers in the detention centres and for no other reason".

"Basically they have acted in mala fide (bad faith), as to stop someone who already has a boarding pass is not right. As for the rest, they have already chosen to return home, so why stop them?" he said.

He also highlighted that the government would be incurring more costs by choosing to keep the migrants in the country.