Kamruzzaman Bablu :
A group of recruiting agency owners claimed that the 101-member recruiting syndicate has laundered around Tk 24,000 crore by charging additional around Tk 5 lakh to Tk 7 lakh from each of the intending Malaysia bound migrants.
The syndicate is responsible for destroying the manpower market as the Malaysian government doesn’t like any syndication. This is why the leaders urged the interim government to take punitive measures against those agencies responsible for destroying the promising Bangladeshi labour market country by syndicating.
Leaders and members of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) made the disclosure at a press conference amid the Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim scheduled visit to Bangladesh today (Friday). The press conference was held in the auditorium of the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity (DRU) on Thursday.
Welcoming the Malaysian PM, BAIRA Joint-Secretary General Fakhrul Islam urged Malaysia not to allow any syndicate for hiring workers from Bangladesh in future and allow all valid recruiting agencies to send migrants to that country.
He urged the interim government to take punitive measures against those agencies responsible for destroying the manpower market in the country by syndicating.
Fakhrul claimed that the 101-member recruiting agency syndicate is responsible for destroying the manpower market as the Malaysian government doesn’t like any syndication. The syndicate has laundered around Tk 24,000 crore by charging additional around Tk 5 lakh to 7 lakh from each of the intending migrants.
According to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), though the Malaysian government approved only 101 Bangladesh Recruiting Agencies (BRA) for sending migrants to that country, the government of Bangladesh allowed 735 recruiting agencies to work with the approved agencies.
According to BMET and recruiting agencies, the 101 approved agencies, which have been termed as syndicate, have taken around Tk 1.52 lakh for each of the migrants from the agencies working with them with the approval of Bangladesh government for visa processing and migration fees of Tk 1.05 lakh.
If the intended migrants have given Tk 5 lakh to Tk 7 lakh to the agencies collected from jobseekers, where has the rest of money gone? In response to such a question, Fakhrul said that the agencies have to spend money for visa trading, air tickets and physical tests of the migrants. “If the fees for 101-recruting agencies are not taken, the migrants could have gone with a cost of only Tk 3.5 lakh.”
Though the Malaysian government stopped hiring foreign workers from May 31 from all 14 source countries including Bangladesh, Fakhrul blamed the syndicate for suspension of the migration market.
He also informed that the market has reopened partially and the Malaysian government has already started hiring migrants from the source countries including Bangladesh.
“But, the 101-recruiting agency syndicate members have started lobbying to manage the Malaysian authorities, so that they can send migrants through the previously introduced process of FWCMS. Through the FWCMS process, the Malaysian government allocates quota and selects the migrants.
He urged the Malaysian government to cancel the FWCMS process as it is owned by a Bangladeshi and is working for the interest of the syndicate.
He blamed former lawmakers Masud Uddin Chowdhury, Nizam Uddin Hazari, AHM Mostafa Kamal, and Benazir Ahmed for the syndication.
