Malaysia may soon start recruiting Bangladeshi workers on ‘zero-cost recruitment basis’, Malaysian government sources made the disclosure on Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur.
The Malaysian Human Resources Minister M Kula Segaran said that he is in the final stages of negotiation with his Bangladeshi counterpart before an agreement is signed very shortly.
The minister said that Bangladeshi workers would be recruited on the basis of ‘zero-cost recruitment’ which means all costs of travel and the recruitment process would be borne by the concerned employers.
Malaysia is aiming to reach such agreement for migrant Bangladesh workers as part of efforts to avoid risking US trade sanctions.
Bangladesh Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad on Sunday said the government does not want to send workers to Malaysia before a low-cost and transparent system of recruitment comes into place.
Kula said terms of the new agreement - in the final stages of bilateral discussions with Bangladesh - will be similar to an agreement reached with Nepal on recruitment of its citizens, Malaysiakini, a Malaysian based online news portal, said on Wednesday.
"When we signed a memorandum of understanding with Nepal, we said that one of the conditions is that when their workers came here, there should be no payment involved. Zero cost for the workers,” said the minister.
"So that means plane tickets and all other expenses have to be borne by the employers," Kula said during a press conference after attending the ministry's weekly ‘meet the people’ day on Tuesday.
Kula reminded that Malaysia was the first to impose a recruitment moratorium on Sept 1, 2018 through suspension of the Foreign Worker Application System for Bangladeshi workers, which only allowed the recruitment process to be carried out by 10 selected agencies.
"There are very few matters left to be resolved. Only one or two matters out of 10 or 12 matters," said Kula who declined to reveal details of Malaysia's request to Bangladesh.
"Once it is resolved, we will open the sector. The government of Malaysia is ready and willing to do that,” he said.
"We brought the moratorium so we have to lift it," he stressed, adding that the Bangladesh government has also been working to improve its own mechanisms to prevent unscrupulous recruitment practices.
Malaysiakini previously reported that the 4th Malaysia-Bangladesh Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting scheduled to be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, last Nov 24 and Nov 25, had been postponed.
Prior to that, the 3rd JWG meeting took place in Putrajaya on Nov 6 and it was agreed by both parties that matters discussed would be the source of guidance for officials from Malaysia and Bangladesh to finalise draft protocols to amend an existing agreement signed in 2016.
The previous system saw Bangladeshi workers apparently having to fork out up to RM20,000 in processing fee per person to agents to facilitate work permit approvals and other arrangements to work in Malaysia.
Earlier, Kula said the Human Resource Ministry's weekly open day has assisted over 2,000 people last year through direct engagements with him and other department heads.
He said the problems solved range from unpaid wages, follow-up to Labour Court decisions, legal consultation, insurance claims and other matters.
