Migrant Dreams, the first of our two documentaries about the plight of Bangladeshi migrant workers in Singapore and Malaysia premiered on Al Jazeera English today.
Some of you might have already read about Mohamad Ismail here, here and here.
Our film documents Ismail’s last days in Singapore and follows his journey home.
I wish we could say things are better now for Ismail, but they are not. He’s still not found a job. His little girl can’t go back to school because he cannot afford to pay her fees. And loansharks are still hounding his family. No, things aren’t getting better at all.
The saddest part of the story though? Ismail and his colleagues aren’t the only ones being screwed over. Thousands, tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi workers are stuck in worse – far worse – plights. We’re still reeling from shock and anger over what we’ve seen these past months. Scams. Exploitation. Blatant abuse. How on earth do so, so, so many employers in Singapore and Malaysia get away with it?
These questions formed the basis of our second film about Bangladesh’s manpower industry. The Human Trade premieres tomorrow on the same channel at 8.30pm, Singapore time. Yes, we know, very few people get Al Jazeera in Singapore. Will post the YouTube link here.
