25 Bangladeshi recruiters to send workers to Malaysia

A total of 25 Bangladeshi recruitment agencies and 250 sub-agencies are expected to be involved in the recruitment process for sending workers to Malaysia, reports news portal Malaysiakini.

On December 19, Bangladesh and Malaysia signed a memorandum of understanding to initiate manpower export facilities to the Southeast Asian country.

With the MoU signing, Malaysia formally reopened its labour market for Bangladeshi workers after a pause of over three years.

The online news portal published the report citing sources familiar with bilateral negotiations.

Malaysiakini sighted a document with a chart that outlined the proposed process and procedure on the recruitment and repatriation of Bangladeshi workers.

According to the document, various stages of the recruitment process starting from the application by employers to procedures upon arrival will be done through Foreign Workers Centralised Management System.

A Malaysian employer can directly liaise with the chosen Bangladeshi recruitment agent or appoint a Malaysian agent to facilitate the recruitment process, it said.

Bangladesh Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad and Malaysian Minister for Human Resources M Saravanan signed the MoU on behalf of their respective sides.

The previous MoU expired on February 17, 2021, and this new one will be in effect for five years, ending in December 2026.

The MoU outlines the responsibilities of the Malaysian and Bangladeshi governments, employers and employees of both countries as well as agencies.

The terms and conditions of the MoU are yet to be public.

But Bangladeshi officials said Malaysian employers will bear all costs including immigration fee, insurance, housing, healthcare and Covid-related test and/or quarantine fee on their end while the remaining expenses will be borne by the employees themselves before reaching Malaysia.

Malaysia was one of the major destinations for Bangladeshi workers till September 2018 when it shut the door for Bangladeshi workers. In the meantime, Bangladesh took steps to reopen the labour market in the Southeast Asian country but failed to make any headway due to many reasons.

At a press briefing in Dhaka, Minister Imran Ahmad said his ministry would try to make sure that the migration cost is lower than that in the previous years.

“We will not leave a scope for syndication,” he said, adding, “We will keep the door open for all. From our side, all legitimate agencies will get opportunity, but Malaysia will make its own decision in this regard.”

According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) data, despite the recruitment suspension, 7.89 per cent of the total Bangladeshi migrants currently work in Malaysia.

The bureau statistics shows that 2,73,201 Bangladeshis were recruited by Malaysian employers in 2007.

In September 2018, when Malaysia suspended recruitment, 1,75,927 Bangladeshis had migrated there in the previous nine months.

Since then, Malaysia recruited only 688 Bangladeshis.

According to the latest Bangladesh Bank data, the inflow of remittance from Malaysia dropped to $290.86 million in the July-September period of 2021 against the inflow of $607.24 million in the corresponding period in 2020. The remittance inflow in 2019 was $ 1.19 billion from Malaysia to Bangla