Malaysia is most likely to reopen its labor market for Bangladeshi workers. A Malaysian delegation will arrive in Dhaka on November 19 or 20 to discuss this matter. Bangladesh is keen to send workers to Malaysia in December this year. A meeting in this regard was held between the Minister for Migration and Foreign Employment and Malaysia's human resources minister M. Kulasegaran on behalf of Malaysia between the two countries at 11pm local time on Wednesday.
Bangladesh always considers Malaysian labour market as very important, but the Malaysian authorities suspended recruitment of Bangladeshi workers on 1 September 2018. Secretary Selim Reza was accompanied by Minister Imran Ahmed, Additional Secretary Dr. Ahmed Muniruch Salehin, Joint Secretary Fazlul Karim, Director General of the Prime Minister's Office Azizur Rahman and BMET Director Nurul Islam. Bangladesh High Commissioner Shahidul Islam and Consular (Labor) Mohammad Zahirul Islam also joined the delegation from Kuala Lumpur.
The closed door meeting discussed in details about the issue of reopening of the labor market. Informed sources from the meeting said that it has been decided that the labor market will start soon. Malaysian human resources minister M Kulasegaran will hold a meeting with Malaysian employers on November 11 to ensure that Bangladesh can send workers in December.
It has been reported that important decisions were taken in the meeting to reduce workers' immigration costs and ensure better work environment. On September 1 last year, the online process of sending workers to Malaysia was shut down by the SPPA. On May 14 this year, Minister Imran Ahmed held a meeting with the Home Minister Tanashree Muhiuddin Yasin and Human Resources Minister M Kulasegararan on a visit to Malaysia.
A meeting of the ‘Joint Working Group’ headed by top executives from the respective ministries of the two countries is likely to be held soon. . The Malaysian government has taken a new initiative to reduce harassment and excessive cost of sending workers. A new software will be used to recruit employees from Bangladesh. There will be no intermediary (broker) involved. From time to time, the company and the family members who receive information about the software will be able to get information via message.
Expatriates' welfare officials say the Malaysian government has recently launched a two-and-a-half-year campaign against illegal workers. Many Bangladeshis have been arrested while many have fled to Bangladesh to avoid arrest. In the meantime, a four-member team led by Minister of State for External Welfare and Foreign Employment Imran Ahmed said they would give some comfort message during their visit to Malaysia.
Secretary of the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare will be in the delegation. Selim Reza, Additional Secretary (Migrant Welfare Division), Dr. Ahmed Munirusch Salehin, a representative of the Malaysian Prime Minister's Office and a representative of the Manpower Employment and Training Bureau will be in the delegation. The delegation is scheduled to return home on November 7.
Ahmed Munirusch Salehin, additional secretary of the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Foreign Employment, sees this as a flicker of hope. He said the team, led by the minister, hopes to be able to return home with good news. He said it was not clear yet how the Malaysian government would take workers from Bangladesh. However, he said he would assure that there is no syndicate of Recruiting Agency for sending workers.
In this regard, Shayim Ahmed Chowdhury Noman Zayedin, Secretary General of Bayara, a manpower exporters' organization, said the present minister is very sincere about opening the labor market in Malaysia. He is constantly on the lookout. The Malaysian government has been delaying the process due to policy problems. It is a pleasure to have a working committee meeting at the top level of the two countries, he commented.
The government is collecting information on the actual number of workers needed in Malaysia and how many will go from Bangladesh. It will be decided at the Working Committee meeting. The government-to-government (G2G) system of the two countries paved the way for involving all legal recruiting agencies in sending workers to the country from Bangladesh. But 10 recruiting agencies from Bangladesh formed a syndicate that virtually kept the Malaysian labour market in their grip. As per the government’s rules a worker was supposed to pay only Tk 40,000 to go to Malaysia from Bangladesh, but the 10 agencies charged more than Tk four lakh from each worker.
In this case, if for some reason Bangladesh loses this market it will be difficult access it in near future. They have to keep in mind that Malaysian government has already signed a big deal to get workers from Nepal.
