Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) refers to the news reports on 25 December stating that 171 Bangladeshis were arrested in Johor…

…despite acknowledgment by the police that the 171 migrants entered the country legally and were only trying to lodge a report to the police station against their agents, it was the migrants who were arrested en masse to be investigated allegedly for overstaying.

Whilst the government has stated that it will investigate the agents responsible for putting the 171 Bangladeshis in this predicament, this alone is not enough…

…the migrants had been duped and are now stranded in our country without the jobs they were promised. If they overstayed, it is by design of unscrupulous agents for the purpose of exploitation.

This would mean the migrants here are victims of trafficking…

As they are victims of trafficking, the migrants cannot be detained in immigration depots or charged for offences…

The council must ensure that these migrants who are victims of trafficking are accorded the full protection provided by Atipsom…

We thus urge the government to ensure the immediate release of the 171 Bangladeshis from detention and suspend any investigation for overstaying under the Immigration Act…