A BANGLADESHI trade union leader says he was mistreated by Malaysian Immigration personnel at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and deported without reason, the Daily Star reported.

General-secretary of the Textile Garments Workers’ Federation of Bangladesh Tapan Saha said he flew to Malaysia on November 17 to attend the Asian Transnational Corporation Monitoring Network 2017 Conference scheduled on November 17 to 21.

He had his visa, return ticket and the invitation letter from the conference organiser, the North South Initiative.  

“I was treated inhumanely… I also experienced physical violence. My phone was confiscated and I was not able to call the organisers,” he told The Daily Star.

Tapan said after arriving at KLIA at 3.30am, an Immigration officer asked for his passport, return ticket and the invitation letter, all of which he surrendered. 

Another officer took his cash, mobile phone and luggage and he was pushed into a room with around 25 Bangladeshis, some Pakistanis, Indians and China, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Qatar, Egypt and Somalia nationals.

He said he complained to the Immigration Department in Kuala Lumpur and the Malaysian High Commission in Dhaka on November 28, but no response was forthcoming. 

Tapan said he felt humiliated when the Immigration officer asked the Bangladeshis, Indians and Pakistanis to sit on the floor. 

He also said that an officer kicked him in the stomach when he sat on a sofa after feeling sick from the lunch he had. 

The officer then asked: “Are you a businessman?”

Tapan was deported the next evening, but before that, he was asked to pay RM200 but told the officer he only had 800 Bangladeshi taka (RM39). He changed 600 taka to RM30 and gave it to the officer. 

“The Immigration officers behaved so rudely. While some Bangladeshis were sleeping on the floor in the morning, an officer shouted and kicked them, telling them to get up.”

Earlier on July 19, Bangladesh Supreme Court lawyer Adilur Rahman Khan was also detained, mistreated by KLIA immigration authorities and deported in a similar fashion.

North South Initiative executive director Adrian Pereira said such practices by Immigration personnel was discriminatory and went against the fundamental right to freedom of movement.

South Asians are particularly targeted by Immigration officers, he told The Daily Star from Kuala Lumpur over the phone. – December 5, 2017.