CONSTRUCTION worker Mohamad Alongir is stoic about his cramped living conditions in a container cabin with his co-workers and countrymen from Bangladesh.

“All I need is a place to rest, eat and sleep,” he told The Malaysian Insight in broken Bahasa Malaysia and with hand gestures when met at his lodgings recently.

Alongir works at a building project in Keramat, Kuala Lumpur, and lives with 20 other migrant workers in five container cabins placed under a flyover not far from their work site.

He allowed The Malaysian Insight to enter the container cabin he shared with others.

Plywood boards are used as partitions and each sleeping area is crowded with bags and clothes. The makeshift kitchen is placed outdoors.

It is basic and exposed to the dusty surroundings.

Alongir and his co-workers have legal documents and permits. Some have been working in Malaysia for almost five years while others like himself arrived less than a year ago.

He said he could not complain about the condition of his accommodation provided by his employer as the workers knew they wouldn’t be able to afford renting their own place.

“This is the place given to us. I don’t have enough money to rent outside,” he said, apologising for his poor BM.

He said the workers also preferred to live in such conditions as they could be together.

“We feel safe and can help one another if there is a problem.”

Alongir and his crew are back at work under the conditional movement control order (CMCO).

They work until 5pm daily and return to their shabby dwellings to cook, eat and rest until the next morning.

Workers’ living quarters are now under scrutiny as Malaysia deals with Covid-19 infections among migrant workers.

Although the daily number of infections have been brought down to double-digits, most cases are from the migrant worker community, whether they work at markets, construction sites or other odd jobs.

Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah recently said 78% of Covid-19 cases since May 4 involved foreign workers, pointing to their cramped living conditions as the main cause of transmissions.

Yesterday, Malaysia recorded a total of 7,877 cases, of which 1,292 are active. The death toll stands at 115.

He had urged employers to educate their migrant workers on hygiene and preventive measures against Covid-19, while Works Minister Fadillah Yusof warned companies to abide by Workers’ Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act (Act 466) on workers’ living conditions, safety and hygiene.

The act, which previously only covered plantation, estate and mining workers, was amended last year to cover workers in all sectors, and was to have come into force on Monday.

However, Human Resources Minister M. Saravanan recently said it would only be enforced in three months’ time, so as to give employers “time to prepare”.

At another construction site near KL Sentral, more than 30 containers are stacked in rows two storeys high to house some 300 migrant workers.

The Malaysian Insight was stopped from entering the compound by a worker, citing approvals had to be obtained from the employer.

However, a Bangladeshi worker who only wanted to be known as Rashid said each cabin housed eight or nine people.

The entire community lived together at the same “camp” but were sent to different work sites.

“We have few people working on a project in Bukit Damansara, a few at a project near KL Sentral and others at another site opposite KL Eco City,” Rashid said.

Asked if the workers had been tested for Covid-19 as part of the government’s conditions in order to resume work, Rashid said he had been tested, but couldn’t say if everyone else in the camp did.

He said “the boss” wouldn’t reveal information about other workers.

Rashid, who has worked in Malaysia for four years now, said the workers had not left their camp during the movement control order and that their employer had brought food and groceries to them.

Even now, the boss is still sending groceries to their quarters, he added.

Under CMCO on the resumption of work, employers must ensure that their workers go straight home or to their quarters after work ends and do not leave unnecessarily.

The Malaysian Employers’ Federation (MEF) had said the real problem with bad living conditions lies with sub-contractors on projects who hire and supply illegal workers to companies.

MEF said Putrajaya should come down hard on these sub-contractors, as main contractors would rarely take such risks in hiring illegal workers. – June 3, 2020.