"We have information that there are about 200 of them hanging around and we are using every way possible to track them down," enforcement director of the immigration department Ishak Mohamed told AFP on Sunday.

Ishak said every worker brought into the country was forced to pay up to 18,000 riggit (5,140 dollars) to these illegal agents.

"These agents are usually Bangladeshis themselves. They go to the slums and villages and lure these poor people by promising them jobs in air-conditioned buildings," Ishak said.

"The villagers end up paying them a fortune, mortgage their property and everything they own to work here and then they end up slogging in construction sites to pay off their debts back home," he said.

Ishak said the government had set up one agent in Malaysia -- Baira Malaysia -- to handle the import of workers from Bangladesh to counter the problem of unscrupulous agents.

Malaysian companies hiring Bangladeshi workers would have to pay 1,200 dollars per worker to the Malaysian agent, which covers the processing fees involved to bring them here.

Malaysia in August had lifted a ban on hiring foreign labourers from Bangladesh which has been in place since 1996.

Malaysia relies on foreign workers to power its construction and agriculture sectors, making up about 2.6 million of the country's 10.5 million workforce.