Human trafficking rackets have become active again in sending workers to Brunei due to a lack of legal action against them, sources in the Bangladesh High Commission in Bandar Seri Begawan said.
The activities of human traffickers slowed down for the time being after a crackdown by the immigration department of the sultanate in October last year.
But in the last two months, a significant number of Bangladeshi workers were trafficked to the Southeast Asian country. The Bangladesh High Commission was receiving at least 25 complaints from the workers every day, mission officials said.
In its letters sent to the relevant ministries, the High Commission voiced concern over the issue, saying that if such criminal activities are not controlled soon, Bangladesh may lose the potential job market.
They also sought legal action against human traffickers immediately.
The Bangladesh High Commission in Brunei in a letter sent to the Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry in January said they cancelled the applications of attestation of 41 visas against the companies namely Motiar Rahaman Sdn Bhd and Omar Sdn Bhd.
The mission came to know that the companies have no projects to hire workers. But the companies managed smartcards and sent workers to Brunei, the letters said referring to the complaints lodged by workers.
Mehedi Hasan Saddam, owner of Motiar Rahman Sdn Bhd, snatched passports, visas and other documents from workers when they reached the airport in Brunei.
Saddam did not provide them with any work rather confined them in a room. When they demanded jobs, he tortured them, it said.
As per the letter, a total of 34,000 Bangladeshi workers went to Brunei during the period between 2018 and 2019. Of them, some 25,573 workers were sent through illegal channel.
Mission officials, however, said at least seven human traffickers including influential ringleader Mahedi Hassan Bijon were deported to Bangladesh after the crackdown by the Brunei government.
Another ringleader Shahed Mojumdar Munna fled to Malaysia to avoid deportation, according to the High Commission.
Bangladesh also cancelled passports of five traffickers including Bijon and Munna because of their involvement in human trafficking activities.
But Bijon is now trying to enter Brunei again after getting back his passport. To this end, he also communicated with different officials concerned in Dhaka, the officials said.
In addition, he is operating illegal manpower business from Bangladesh with the help of his brother Mehedi Hasan Saddam, now staying in Brunei.
Another deported human trafficker Abdur Rahim is also helping him from Bangladesh. They are procuring visas using the names of different fake companies which have, in fact, no projects.
The Brunei government is set to establish a tourism hub in its Temburong district. It will also start the second phase of an oil refinery project. So, at least 40,000 employments are set to be generated for foreign workers soon.
As Bangladeshi workers have goodwill in Brunei, they have good chance of getting jobs there, Bangladesh High Commissioner air vice-marshal (retd) Mahmud Hussain told the FE.
"So, it is very urgent to bring human traffickers to justice to protect the job market," he said, adding that otherwise Bangladesh may lose job opportunities.
Earlier, the Brunei government wanted to stop recruitment of workers from Bangladesh because of such malpractices. But they did not do it following requests from the Bangladesh mission, he mentioned.
Sources said, trafficking rackets were very powerful. With the help of the Brunei government, the High Commission succeeded in breaking the cycle, Mr Hussain said.
High Commission sources said Bangladeshi nationals in collaboration with Brunei and other citizens including Indians have created strong networks and hundreds of workers fell prey to traffickers so far.
They have opened many fake companies which have no actual demand for workers. They only operate their visa trading business through these companies.
"If frauds can be prevented from reorganising themselves again, the market will be stable for the workers," Mr Hussain observed.
Malpractices came to spotlight in late 2015 when the workers' demand declined following closure of the projects of Temburong Bridge and the first phase of oil refinery.
The Brunei authorities recently blacklisted at least 31 such fake companies for their involvement in visa trading and harassing the migrant workers after recruiting them from Bangladesh.
The mission in another letter to the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment (MoEWOE) mentioned that Bijon owns some 12 to 15 companies. But these companies have no projects to hire workers.
Mahedi hired several thousand workers from Bangladesh through contracts with his inactive companies. Many workers were engaged with begging or drug peddling for lack of employment opportunities.
Wishing anonymity, an official said a good number of workers in Brunei are now in tight corner.
Traffickers forced many of them to act as middlemen while many others joined the trafficking racket willingly as they have no option to come back home because they spent about Tk 300,000-Tk 400,000 each as migration cost.
Since the closure of the Malaysian job market for Bangladeshi workers in 2018, traffickers have also been using Brunei as a route to send workers to Malaysia, he added.
Brunei and Bangladesh are going to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on manpower recruitment, suggesting sending workers to Brunei through Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL) to check malpractice.
But the mission officials expressed worries that the Brunei government may not sign the deal, if Bangladesh fails to stop human trafficking.
Besides, the Brunei Sultan is expected to visit Bangladesh in April this year. Human trafficking issue may figure at the meeting with his Bangladeshi counterpart, they said.
When contacted, Imran Ahmad, minister for MoEWOE, said they have sent all reports to the home ministry to take necessary action against human traffickers.
Some 150,000 foreign nationals are now staying in Brunei, mostly from Indonesia and the Philippines. About 25,000 Bangladeshis are working there and maximum of them are engaged in construction works.
arafat_ara@hotmail.com