“We will only process such applications if the state government changes its policy and allows it,” said August. “The Sarawak Government found that workers from Bangladesh are not suitable for the plantations.”

“Sarawak has autonomy in immigration matters. Such workers cannot enter the state without the approval of the Sarawak Government.”

August did not disclose the number of Bangladeshi workers in Sarawak.

Radin noted that the issue of workers from Bangladesh had gone viral in the social media. “Our youths are willing to accept any work as long as they are paid properly.”

Minister of Human Resource Development and Information Technology Siringan Gubat said the decision not to utilize Bangladeshis as foreign workers was made by the State Cabinet three years ago. “There is no issue here. The policy still stands today, not to allow them to come in,” he said in a statement.

It has been learnt that if Sabah and Sarawak need foreign workers, they prefer to take them from Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. “Workers from countries like Bangladesh would upset local sensitivities,” said a source in a manpower agency in Kota Kinabalu. “Bangladeshis were actually brought in by the Berjaya Government, under Harris Salleh, for the Koperasi Pembangunan Desa (KPD) projects. These were highly-skilled professionals.”

“Most them returned home when Berjaya fell in 1985 and was replaced by the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) Government. There are already 500,000 workers from Bangladesh in the peninsula, both legal and illegal. An estimated 12,000 Bangladeshi workers were supposed to come to Sarawak last year.”

Figures for Sabah were not immediately available but the database for the Sarawak Labour Department shows that 148 valid licences had been issued in the state to engage workers from Bangladesh. The licences were issued under Section 119 of the Sarawak Labour Ordinance. Of the licences issued, 120 were for the manufacturing sector, 26 in construction, and one each for mining and quarrying. The last two licences, issued several years ago, are still valid.

In both Sabah and Sarawak, there are no limits to the number of workers who can be engaged under a licence, said the source in the manpower agency. “The application for a licence begins first with an application for an AP (Approved Permit).”

Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia are covered by a G2G (Government to Government) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) approved by the Bangladeshi Cabinet in February this year, and to be approved within one month by the Malaysian Cabinet. Under the MOU, Bangladeshi workers would not be confined to the plantation sector as previously but can also be recruited for the manufacturing and construction sectors.