"Bangladeshi human traffickers to be sent home from Brunei" , 5 October 2019

Bangladesh has suspended the passports of five citizens suspected of running a trafficking ring involving hundreds of workers in Brunei and asked the government there to deport them. 

Bangladesh’s top diplomat in Brunei said he had received repeated complaints from workers who had paid thousands of dollars to be taken to the wealthy Southeast Asian nation on the promise of jobs that never materialised.

Bangladeshis were being charged about US$4,000 by agents who either failed to get them any work at all or made them work for very low pay.

Most of the about 25,000 Bangladeshis in Brunei are either employed in the construction industry or own businesses and only a minority are exploited, the High Commission said.

Bangladesh is one of the world’s biggest labour-exporting countries and numbers are increasing. At least 1 million Bangladeshis secured jobs overseas in 2017, the highest number ever recorded by the government. But the country’s recruitment system depends largely on unlicensed brokers working in rural areas and opens the door to trafficking and cheating.