The recent decision taken by the Malaysian government to close its doors to Bangladeshi workers from June 1 this year has caused a crisis of air tickets.
As a result, a good number of Malaysia-bound workers are facing uncertainty over going to Malaysia. Thousands of workers thronged Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) on Friday in their desperate bid to catch the last flight to Kuala Lumpur.
A return air ticket that costs only Tk 30,000 has now skyrocketed to between Tk 95,000 and Tk 108,000 due to an artificial shortage created by some unscrupulous manpower recruiting agencies. And this price is valid only for one-way journey.
The sudden labour market closure has left approximately 31,500 workers stranded at HSIA. Many of them had paid between Tk 5 lakh and Tk 7 lakh in the hope of getting job in Malaysia even though the government fixed the migration cost at Tk 79,000.
Manpower recruiting agencies such as New Haven, Elegant, and Al Farah were accused of failing to provide tickets or work permits despite having received large amount of money from the workers.
At least 50 Malaysia-bound Bangladeshi workers at the airport claimed that they had been deceived by these manpower recruiting agencies.
Abu Taher, a Malaysia-bound Bangladeshi worker, told this reporter, “As per the agencies’ instructions, we sold our land to arrange required money and handed over it to them. But due to their mismanagement, we are now facing uncertainty.”
A good number of Bangladeshi workers are now willing to pay airfare four times than the prevailing price in order to get job in Malaysia.
The authority of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport confirmed that only 1,500 workers would be able to depart for Malaysia on the last day (May 31).
In addition to nine regular flights, Biman Bangladesh Airlines arranged a special flight for 271 employees which was scheduled to fly to Kuala Lumpur at 7:30 pm. But unfortunately, journey for remaining 31,701 workers were cancelled.
Biman’s manager (public relations) Al Masud Khan said that following the request made by the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment, the national flag carrier has decided to operate a special flight on the Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur route today (Friday). The flight will carry a total of 271 passengers, he added.
The effect of the sudden close was not limited to Dhaka airport. According to information received from different media, approximately 5,000 Bangladeshi workers have been left stranded at two international air terminals in Kuala Lumpur.
The Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) data showed that as of May 30, a total of 524,946 workers had been approved to work in Malaysia. Of them, 491,745 had already gone to Malaysia. But the sudden closure of labour market has left thousands of workers stranded.
