Abu (pseudonym) is a migrant worker and since the enforcement of the movement control order (MCO) in March, he has found himself struggling to survive in Malaysia due to the government's policy on foreign labour amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

When Malaysiakini spoke to him in June, the well-built Bangladeshi national was wearing a T-shirt much too tight for him.

Abu explained that as he works in a market, he is always in contact with oily substances, therefore his clothes turn into rags quickly and needed to be replaced every month.

“But I don’t have money to buy new clothes, so my friend lent me his, and he is a smaller size than I am,” he said, letting out a nervous laugh.

The migrant worker in his 20s has been working in a community market in Selangor for the past 10 years, but the market was closed down during the MCO.

However, when the state government announced that the market would be reopened in June, migrant workers were not allowed to return to work...