The High Court (HC) on Tuesday issued a rule upon the government's bodies concerned to explain in six weeks as to why their inaction and malfeasance in damaging the lives of the Malaysia-bound workers should not be declared illegal.
In the rule, it also asked the respondents to explain as to why a direction should not be given upon them to return the deposited money with interest and appropriate penalty to the victims.
The Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Secretary, the Foreign Affairs Secretary, the Inspector General of Police and the General Secretary of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) have been asked to comply with the rule.
An HC bench comprising Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice S M Masud Hossain Dolon passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed in this regard.
The court also directed the government to submit an update report on the issue to the court in every three months.
In an observation, the HC said the failure of the government has been surfaced in the incident.
On June 3 this year, two Supreme Court lawyers - Tanvir Ahmed and Biplab Kumar Poddar - filed the writ petition as a public interest litigation.
Following the petition, the HC bench on June 30 ordered the government to inform it within seven days what steps have been taken against the persons involved with the mismanagement that led to failing of huge workers to reach Malaysia before the deadline set by Kuala Lumpur.
Complying with the HC order, the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment on Monday submitted a report to the court.
According to the report, a total of 17,777 workers failed to reach Malaysia by the deadline (May 31).
The Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment has mandated that recruiting agencies must refund money to workers who could not travel to Malaysia from Bangladesh within July 18 this year, the report also read.
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