



Abdul Matin, 35, went to Malaysia as the prospect of employment and good fortune beckoned him but he returned stony-broke and almost crippled for no fault of his own.

Matin was meted out Malaysia's second highest form of punishment - judicial caning -- in which he was dealt out strokes with thicker rotan cane that almost damaged his spinal cord.

He was punished, as he did not have a work permit that his employer was supposed to arrange, otherwise he maintained every legal procedure to go to Malaysia.

He returned home on April 21 after 20 months of stay in Malaysia. The strokes of rotan canes rendered him unfit for any hard work. Moreover, his poor financial condition made the matter worse as he cannot see a doctor.

A miserable living because of non-payment and low wages for months made him a weakling.

Caning with thicker rotan causes infertility along with numbness from the waist downwards that lasts until some time after, according to Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia.

“As I got up from bed the next morning my head was spinning; I felt severe pain in my spinal cord and my penis hurts while urinating,” Matin who hails from Chowddagram of Comilla told The Daily Star.

He said his wife had walked out on him, as he could not anymore eke out a living.

“My life is in ruin for no reasons. My parents are also not in a position to help me,” said Matin, a father of three children.

Matin went to Malaysia through the recruiting agency Shimon Overseas -- to work in an electric company. As he landed in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian outsourcing company - Sepang Nusa SDN BHD -- 'sold' him along with 32 other Bangladeshis to a company in Johor Baru.

They were later 'sold' twice and their monthly wage was a meager Malaysian Ringgit 200 to 300, which was too small for a moderate living. Moreover, the jobs were also not regular.

Besides, Matin was not provided with any work permit. To make things worse, the outsourcing company that hired them retained their passports.

He said they repeatedly called Ohid, agent of Shimon Overseas in Kuala Lumpur, to make sure that he is provided with a work permit, but Ohid never acted positively.

After one year when the workers were 'sold' to a Malaysian employer - Azmiri, he told Matin, after a medical test, that he and two others were not medically fit.

Fearing arrest, he went to the office of Ohid in Kuala Lumpur on November 21 last year only to be denied access to the office.

Mizan, a compatriot, sheltered him in his residence, which was near a project where several hundred workers from India, Indonesia and Bangladesh stayed.

“It was around 1:30pm. Suddenly police raided that area and arrested around 300 workers including me,” Matin said.

As arrestees were produced before a court it granted him a month remand. After the remand he was sentenced to four months' imprisonment and three rotan lashings.

March 21 was fixed for lashing. There were over 150 Indian, Indonesian and Bangladeshi workers for the punishment. Around 20 were Bangladeshis, Matin added.

“I was tethered to a ladder-like structure; as the first rotan hit me, it felt as if the earth shuddered beneath my feet; a wave of pain passed through my spine; I remained unconscious for seven hours; I couldn't feel the next two strikes,” Matin recalled.