“I am deeply grieved over the plight of these prisoners, and their families in Bangladesh, many of whom have been scammed, exploited and extorted.

“Many of them have sold their properties to pay their way here, but they ended up being placed behind bars for crimes they did not commit,” he said in a statement today.

He said the workers come to Malaysia to do the dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs shunned by most Malaysians so they can escape poverty.

Lim said the government needed to amend the law to bring migrant worker recruitment under one ministry, including applications, vetting, processing and renewal of documents.

“The more the bureaucracy, inevitably the more the opportunities for corruption,” he said, adding that the parties responsible for bringing in workers without providing jobs or proper documentation must face the full force of the law.

He also said migrant workers who find themselves the “victim of injustice” should be allowed to apply for jobs in Malaysia, rather than be locked up at the expense of the taxpayer.

Recently, Bangladeshi MP Tanvir Shakil Joy said Dhaka is set to introduce new legislation that will legalise sub-agents in the overseas employment recruitment sector by the end of 2024, as it tries to clamp down on exploitation of its citizens seeking work overseas.

He said more than 350,000 workers are registered in Malaysia and their income is a key source of revenue for Dhaka, reported to be roughly RM100 billion over the past two years.

However, Tanvir noted that more than 1,000 Bangladeshis are currently in detention in Malaysia because of their undocumented status.