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Coronavirus: for Malaysia’s migrant workers, lack of food is a bigger worry than Covid-19
- Unlike in neighbouring Singapore, there have not yet been any large virus outbreaks among Malaysia’s migrant worker community
- But lockdown conditions, dwindling funds and the absence of ways to earn money have left many wondering where their next meal is coming from
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Under a bridge on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur sits a small huddle of dilapidated shipping containers – each divided into two levels, carpeted with canvas sheets and ventilated by small whirring table fans.
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For 65 Bangladeshi construction workers these containers are home, and as Malaysia enters its sixth week of a national lockdown to stem the spread of Covid-19 – during which most workplaces are closed and non-essential activities suspended – migrants living in these cramped, close quarters are beginning to feel the pangs of hunger as their money slowly runs out.
“We have not been paid since February because of the lockdown in mid-March,” said Mohamad Hanif, who has been living in one of the containers since he arrived in Malaysia last year. Although as a group they have scraped together everything they had to buy groceries during the lockdown period, nothing lasts forever.
“We cook communally. Our meals are usually rice, some vegetables with lentil curry. But it is difficult now because there isn’t money, there isn’t enough food to go around and we are all hungry. We need help.”
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Mohamad Hanif’s situation isn’t unique. Malaysia is a temporary home to an estimated 5.5 million migrant workers – more than half of whom, about 3.3 million, are undocumented – from countries across Asia, but mostly Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nepal. They are employed in sectors such as construction, security and manufacturing: jobs that employers refer to as “3D” – dangerous, dirty and difficult.
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