Areport in this daily informs us that thousands of Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia are facing arrest and deportation as a rehiring programme ended on June 30. The new Malaysian government has also decided to cancel work permits of those working in Malaysia for more than ten years, a move that seems unnecessarily harsh. This has added to the number of workers who are now termed "undocumented" and hence their fate is uncertain.

How did things get so out of hand? Several factors have contributed to this crisis. Migrant workers were, for instance, at the mercy of middlemen or agents of the rehiring programme. Many of these agents have duped these workers, taking huge sums of money and then disappearing without getting them rehired. There has also been alleged collusion between government highups (of the previous Malaysian government) and a recruiting syndicate that has made billions by charging workers ten times more than the amount set in the government-to-government plus deal signed between the two countries in 2016.

Often workers end up becoming undocumented because of low wages, non-payment or other abuses at the workplace that compel them to leave their legal jobs and opt for those without work permits. Thus, exploitation and fraud are major factors behind the desperate plight of these workers.

The immediate need to end the anxiety of these workers is to give them a reasonable amount of time to process and secure work visas. The rehiring programme, moreover, needs to be more transparent and accountable.

It is crucial for both the Malaysian and Bangladesh governments to make sure all recruitments are done according to the official deal so that the scope for workers working illegally is significantly curtailed. The Malaysian government has to make sure that migrant workers are not abused by their employing companies so that they do not leave their legal jobs and end up becoming undocumented. Meanwhile, the Bangladesh government should negotiate with the Malaysian authorities and request them not to deport these workers without a fair assessment.