By IANS
Dhaka : A Bangladeshi worker stranded in Malaysia after being duped by recruiting agencies has died in Kuala Lumpur.
Mahesh Kumar Sarkar, 55, had gone to Malaysia seven months ago but the employers, on whose behalf he had been recruited, failed to provide him a job, the New Age newspaper said Sunday.
Ten other workers who returned Saturday accused Bangladesh’s high commission in Kuala Lumpur of being indifferent to Sarkar’s plight.
Sarkar, lodged in a rented house along with his fellows, was suffering from fever for many days, Mehedi Hasan, one of the workers, told New Age.
Hundreds of Bangladeshi workers are stranded in Malaysia after they found that the employers there could not give them jobs. Recruitment agencies at both ends are said to be playing foul, collecting money and then ditching workers.
The crisis came to a head last week when the Malaysian government froze recruitment of Bangladeshi workers till procedures at both ends were improved.
Malaysia has agreed to take 300,000 workers from Bangladesh. An estimated 160,000 are already working there.
Bangladesh has rushed top officials to Kuala Lumpur and has expressed the hope that the freeze would be temporary.
Affected workers staged a demonstration in front of the Bangladesh mission in Malaysian capital last week and then went on hunger strike. Twenty-five of them have been brought home so far.