According to Andy Hall, the workers said they received only a first repayment instalment of RM1,000 in January. A second instalment, due in April, had yet to be paid.

The complainants are among 251 workers who were to receive a total of almost RM3 million in overdue salaries in an agreement reached in December after the workers staged a peaceful protest at the company’s factory in Port Klang.

Some of the workers had gone without pay for seven months last year.

A spokesman for 22 workers who petitioned the labour department in Port Klang on Wednesday said 12 of them were still without jobs.

“We cannot look for jobs because our visas have expired, through no fault of our own, and we cannot even return home.

“We also buy and share food among ourselves,” the spokesman said, adding that they have had to dip into their savings or borrow money from friends to get through the day.

The Port Klang labour office said it was still investigating claims by the former workers of Kawaguchi Manufacturing.

“These workers can file a complaint with the nearest labour department and enquire about their status,” the department’s spokesman told FMT.

FMT has contacted Kawaguchi for comment. Calls to a number provided by the affected workers, said to be that of a company representative, went unanswered.

Kawaguchi Manufacturing supplies components to major Japanese air conditioning and electronics brands.

Hall said 22 other former Kawaguchi workers who returned to Bangladesh had lodged a complaint with the expatriates ministry in Dhaka.

The workers in Bangladesh said they will petition the Malaysian high commission in Dhaka today on the same issue, while the workers in Malaysia said they will go to the Bangladeshi high commission to seek its assistance.

Hall said the Kawaguchi case is symbolic of systemic modern slavery, forced labour, impunity, corruption, and the absence of the rule of law in Malaysia.

“At this stage, I have little genuine hope or expectation that officials in either Bangladesh or Malaysia will assist the workers to access justice and their owed wages for past slave labour,” he told FMT.

“So, what else can the workers do but complain to officials in both countries tasked to protect them from such abuse?”

The labour department is believed to have opened eight investigation papers against Kawaguchi and accommodation providers for the overdue salaries and lack of certification for their accommodation facilities.