Bangladeshi expatriate Rayhan Kabir will be deported by Malaysia once the country's attorney general's chambers completes looking into the investigation papers of the case, Malaysia's Immigration Department Director General Khairul Dzaimee Daud said yesterday. 

He said the department was made to understand that the investigation papers regarding Rayhan's case had been handed to the AGC, reported The Star.

"Once the AGC is done, we will deport him to Bangladesh.

"And he will never step foot in Malaysia again as he will be blacklisted," he said at a press conference.

Asked how soon it would take to send Rayhan back to Bangladesh, Khairul said the immigration department was informed that the earliest flight available from Kuala Lumpur to Dhaka was at the end of August, said The Star report.

Rayhan is alleged to have made false allegations on Malaysia's treatment of illegal immigrants in its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic when he was interviewed in an Al Jazeera documentary.

He was arrested on July 24 by a team of immigration officers from the Putrajaya office and has been remanded.

Rayhan has since apologised.

Rights groups and global journalists' platforms condemned Malaysia's moves to arrest and deport Rayhan for criticising the government's treatment of migrant workers on a news show, saying such moves underscored the country's backsliding on press freedom in recent months, Voice of America reported yesterday.

Combined with the pressure on Al-Jazeera, Rayhan's arrest "clearly shows that the current authorities in Malaysia don't tolerate any independent reporting and consequently have very little respect for press freedom," said Daniel Bastard, Asia Pacific director for Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Rights groups said Rayhan's arrest will also make the millions of migrant workers in Malaysia all the more reluctant to speak to the press about alleged abuses, raising the risk that they will fester, according to the VoA report.

"Now the implication is that most other migrant workers will be completely afraid of speaking out," said Wathshlah Naidu, executive director of Malaysia's Centre for Independent Journalism.

Matthew Bugher, Asia programme director for freedom of expression advocates Article 19, said the arrest will further "stifle the media's ability to bring…abuses to light".