Malaysia set to deport Bangladeshi who claimed migrant mistreatment in Al Jazeera documentary

Malaysian authorities are set to deport Md Rayhan Kabir, a Bangladeshi migrant worker who was arrested after claiming mistreatment of immigrants in a documentary.

He will be sent back to Bangladesh via a flight from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Friday night, the New Straits Times newspaper reported.

A deportation team was scheduled to transport Rayhan to the airport at 9pm local time, Datuk Khairul Dzaimee Daud, director general of the Immigration Department, said in a statement.

The department has earlier decided to deport him without any charges.

K Sumitha Shaanthinni and C Selvaraja, the lawyers for Rayhan, had said in a statement Rayhan would be deported immediately after his COVID-19 screening test results.

Sumitha had said the deportation process would include getting a flight ticket to Bangladesh.

The department arrested him on Jul 24 after Al Jazeera published the documentary "Locked up in Malaysia's Lockdown".

It focused on the plight of thousands of undocumented migrants detained during raids in areas under tight coronavirus lockdowns.

The documentary sparked an immediate backlash online while several officials decried the report as being inaccurate, misleading and unfair.

Al Jazeera said it stood by the "professionalism, quality and impartiality of its journalism" and called on Malaysia to withdraw the criminal investigation.