Syndicate fears resurface over Malaysia jobs
Malaysia has published the names of 25 Bangladeshi recruiting agencies eligible to recruit workers from Bangladesh, triggering concerns from the parliamentary opposition Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizen Party (NCP) over the possibility of a new syndicate controlling the Malaysia-bound labour market.
The names were published on Friday through Malaysia’s Foreign Workers Centralised Management System (FWCMS), an online platform for managing foreign-worker recruitment.
The development follows Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s visit to Malaysia in June, his first foreign trip after taking office, during which discussions were held on reopening Malaysia’s labour market to Bangladeshi workers.
While welcoming the prospect of restoring access to the Malaysian market after more than two years, both opposition parties called for transparency in the selection of recruiting agencies.
Jamaat warns of ‘syndicate’
In a statement issued Sunday, Jamaat Secretary
General Mia Golam Parwar alleged that an “unscrupulous group” within the government was attempting to bring recruiting agencies under a syndicate, potentially harming the interests of Bangladeshi migrant workers and the country.
Jamaat said limiting recruitment to 25 agencies could effectively create a syndicate-based system.
It warned that similar arrangements in the past had resulted in excessive charges being imposed on workers and had caused thousands of migrants to suffer.
The party expressed concern that workers could once again be forced to spend as much as Tk 600,000–700,000 to secure employment in Malaysia.
Jamaat pointed out that Bangladesh has more than 2,000 licensed recruiting agencies and called for an open, transparent and competitive system that gives qualified agencies equal opportunities.
It also urged the government to protect workers from fraud, excessive recruitment costs and exploitation.
NCP questions selection process
The NCP also welcomed the possibility of reopening Malaysia’s labour market but questioned how the 25 agencies were selected.
In a statement Saturday night, NCP spokesperson Asif Mahmud Sajeeb Bhuiyan said the selection process, criteria and basis had not yet been made clear.
He noted that Bangladesh had previously sent Malaysia a list of 423 recruiting agencies that met the required conditions.
The government, he said, should explain why and how only 25 agencies were ultimately selected.
The NCP warned against allowing a new syndicate to emerge, citing allegations of widespread irregularities in the previous Malaysia recruitment system.
According to the party, workers had previously been charged up to around Tk 550,000 despite a government-set recruitment cost of Tk 79,000. Many aspiring migrants were forced to sell land, exhaust their savings or take loans to finance their overseas employment.
Transparency urged
Both parties stressed that reopening Malaysia’s labour market could create significant employment opportunities for Bangladeshi workers, but argued that the process must be transparent and competitive.
The NCP called for accountability throughout the recruitment process and urged the government to prevent recruitment agencies from exploiting workers’ vulnerability.
The controversy has placed the government under pressure to clarify the mechanism through which the 25 agencies were selected and to demonstrate that the reopening of the Malaysian labour market will not repeat the problems associated with earlier recruitment arrangements.
For thousands of Bangladeshi workers hoping to travel to Malaysia, the key question now is whether the new system will provide wider, fairer access—or once again concentrate recruitment opportunities in the hands of a limited group of agencies.
