Rayhan Fears His Family Would Face Trouble

Rayhan Kabir, a Bangladeshi migrant detained by the Malaysian police for criticizing Malaysia's treatment towards undocumented migrants, voiced his concern that his father might face trouble.

Rayhan 's father, Shah Alam, announced this to the media on Saturday night, as the family members have been passing a worrying period since his son was arrested.

Shah Alam said Rayhan told that he talked to his son on July 23, nine days earlier, because they didn't hear from him and didn't know where he was. That time Rayhan expressed his doubt that his family might be in trouble.

"He spoke to us on Thursday, before the arrest. My son told me, 'Father, I'm suffering as I stood beside people. You may have to go through some trouble'," Shah Alam said.

On July 3, Al Jazeera published an investigative documentary titled "Locked Up in Malaysia's Lockdown". The report raised the issue of the government's repressive treatment of migrant workers in Malaysia during the lockdown. In that report, along with the citizens of many other countries, Rayhan Kabir also gave interview, which angered the Malaysian authorities.

An arrest warrant has been released against Rayhan Kabir. He was detained by the Malaysian police on the night of July 24.

Various international and Bangladeshi organisations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, also denounced the detention and called for Rayhan's immediate release.

Before his arrest, Rayhan on July 19 also sent a message to his friend defending his stance about Malaysian government’s treatment to undocumented migrants.

Rayhan's younger sister Meherun Maher studies in Marketing at Narayanganj College revealed that message.

The message read: "Many countries around the world still enslave workers. Just do a Google search, you will know we provide the cheapest labour. Yet they hurt us, punish us, even though it is illegal, because that is how the system has become. Why do they make the people cross the airport with their hands in chains like animals in front of people from other countries? Why would they strip my devout brother naked in the name of punishment? Despite such injustice, we cannot raise our voice against them. We will just shed our tears with grief."

Rayhan further wrote, "I am fine. I have been comfortable with my family. I have a Malaysian degree. I could have spent my life comfortably doing a corporate job. But when I saw my countrymen inhumanely tortured in front of my eyes, I could not bear it. As a result, I am a fugitive accused today. Let's not talk about how I am now passing every moment, how I am struggling every second. I will put up that story for some other time. My only crime is I am a Bengali."

In 2014, Rayhan completed his Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and went to study in Malaysia. He passed BA there. Just before Eid-ul-Fitr he got a job in a company.