Migrant workers in Malaysia seek unpaid wages from a supplier to Japanese companies

HANOI, Vietnam — Around 280 Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia are demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars in back wages and other money owed to them after their former employer, a plastic parts supplier to big Japanese companies, closed down.

The workers at Kawaguchi Manufacturing's factory in Port Klang, Malaysia's largest port city, were left stranded when the company withheld their wages for up to eight months before shutting down late last year. The workers have filed complaints in Malaysia and back home in Bangladesh.

Such disputes have become a diplomatic sore point between Bangladesh and Malaysia, drawing scrutiny on a small but powerful group of recruitment agencies and middlemen who monopolize such jobs.

Asif Nazrul, an adviser to Bangladesh’s expatriate welfare minist