KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1: Malaysia has launched a crackdown on Bangladeshi labour agents who are illegally bringing workers from the Indian subcontinent into the country.

“We have information that there are about 200 of them hanging around and we are using every way possible to track them down,” enforcement director of the immigration department Ishak Mohamed told AFP on Sunday.

Ishak said every worker brought into the country was forced to pay up to $5,140 to these illegal agents.

“These agents are usually Bangladeshis themselves.

“They go to the slums and villages and lure these poor people by promising them jobs in air-conditioned buildings,” Ishak said.

“The villagers end up paying them a fortune, mortgage their property and everything they own to work here and then they end up slogging in construction sites to pay off their debts back home,” he said.

Ishak said the government had set up one agent in Malaysia — Baira Malaysia — to handle the import of workers from Bangladesh to counter the problem of unscrupulous agents.—AFP