Reza Mahmud :
Manpower export to Malaysia is being hampered seriously due to individuals handling of online procedures.
Recruiting agencies have faced serious obstacles as one company Bestinet has controlled the e-wallet system to pay service providers fee.
They said that a worker has to collect calling visa and then collect E-Visa, and the attestation from the Bangladesh Embassy in Kuala Lumpur to make a fly to Malaysia. But he needs a health screening report first as a pre-requisite of getting the calling visa.
For performing the health screening a worker need to be registered in MiGRAMS system by paying 100 ringgit registration fee.
Recruiting agencies complete this registration process and pay the fee of the workers. Upon paying the fees recruiting agents get credit as like a prepaid system. Credits deposited in “top-up e-wallet” segment of MiGRAMS portal.
The recruiting agencies alleged that the Bestinet is creating obstacles to get the top-up e-wallet option as per its wish. It make the option clear only for it’s agencies of choice while the others are being deprived.
This manipulation is depriving Bangladeshi workers of entering in Malaysian labor market which causes a serious threat to this sector’s rich potential.
Along with the workers dozens of agencies who have a good reputation and track record in manpower export are falling in to the image crisis. And thousands of Bangladeshi workers are suffering.
Malaysian government assigned online system provider Bestinet who owned the MiGRAMS. Bangladeshi origin Dato Aminul Islam Bin Abdul Noor is the owners of Bestinet and recklessly created obstacle for Bangladeshi agencies and controlling the whole system.
Thus many recruiting agencies are depriving despite having adequate number of workers demand.
Insiders claimed that Dato Aminul with his Bangladeshi Partners is illegally collecting money more than RM100 for each worker in Bangladesh. Thus, they are earning extra money from the poor Bangladeshi migration aspirant workers.
When contacted, Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, Proprietor of Sadia International and former Secretary General of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) told The New Nation on Saturday, “Number of recruiting agencies are on trouble now due to one persons handling of the top-up e-wallet of MiGRAMS registration process. If any agency fails to get a e-wallet he must fail to send any worker to Malaysia even after completing every other procedures.”
He said, “Recruiting agencies which have faced such troubles, have written letters to Bestinet, Expatriates welfare ministry in Bangladesh and Human Resource ministry of Malaysia. We hope the concern authorities will take appropriate actions to break the malpractices.”
The former BAIRA Secretary General said that such a malpractice harms workers who keen to go Malaysia especially it harms the manpower export sector and the country losing the opportunity of getting huge remittance.
Apart from access problem to e-wallet, there are some problems they face with the MiGRAMS.
“Very often a worker need to perform health screening as MiGRAMS authority said it was not done properly. In this case each time we have to pay 100 ringgit for the same worker,” several other recruiting agency proprietors said.
Many Bangladeshi recruiting agencies failed to find the e-wallet option in the MiGRAMS system from the mid-January this year. Later on May 2, recruiting agencies send a letter to the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment minister Imran Ahmed to solve the problem.
On top of that Malaysian Human Resource Ministry wrote Bestinet several times in between March3, March 7 and March 8 to make top up e-wallet service open for all. But Bestinet did not do that. Later in March 20, in a letter Malaysian human resource ministry warned Bestinet and said that the ministry received complains that Bangladeshi recruiting agencies are still unable to use the service.