Govt targets transparent Malaysia recruitment
Bangladesh’s efforts to reopen the Malaysia-bound manpower market have run into fresh concerns over recruitment control, with recruiting agencies warning that the new arrangement could again concentrate business in the hands of a small group and push up migration costs.
The government is prioritising the reopening of Malaysia’s labour market through a fully transparent process, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Secretary Md Mokhtar Ahmed said on Wednesday.
Several ministerial-level meetings have already been held between the two countries on the issue, he said.
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman also raised the matter during bilateral discussions with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar on his first foreign visit, according to a press release from the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment.
Mokhtar made the remarks as representatives of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) submitted a memorandum setting out their demands on the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers for Malaysia.
Baira urged the government to give all qualified recruiting agencies direct access to Malaysia’s labour market instead of requiring hundreds of firms to operate through 25 principal agencies.
In a memorandum submitted to the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, they said allowing 312 agencies to work as associates in Malaysia’s Foreign Workers Centralised Management System (FWCMS) would have little practical value if they could not send workers against their own job orders and licences without going through the 25 principal agencies.
Mohammed Fakhrul Islam, former joint secretary general of Baira, said the arrangement risked reviving the recruitment syndicate that had operated in the previous phase.
“We are witnessing the same old syndicate system again. The main actors will be the 25 agencies, while the other 312 recruiting agencies have been kept only as eyewash,” he said.
Fakhrul alleged that recruiting agencies could have to pay syndicate members an additional 5,000 ringgit for each worker, besides expenses for job orders, air tickets and visa processing.
He claimed this could push the cost of migration to Tk 7-8 lakh, against around Tk 4.5 lakh in the previous phase.
The alleged additional payment could not be independently verified.
The memorandum said direct recruitment had previously remained restricted to a limited number of agencies despite many firms being listed on the FWCMS. Such restrictions, it said, had contributed to higher migration costs and concentrated control over the market.
The signatories demanded individual FWCMS IDs and passwords for all qualified agencies and the right to recruit directly against their own job orders. They said no recruiter should be compelled to conduct business through another agency or pay commissions or additional fees.
They also called for a transparent and accountable FWCMS under government control, arguing that private FWCMS officials or employees should not be allowed to influence recruitment through the Bangladesh mission.
The recruiters further demanded an end to any monopoly in medical testing. They proposed that all medical centres approved by the expatriates’ welfare ministry be allowed to conduct examinations for Malaysia-bound workers.
If direct access for all eligible agencies is not possible, they proposed a One Stop Service through state-run Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Ltd (BOESL), allowing qualified recruiters to send workers on equal terms.
“We do not want Malaysia’s labour market closed; rather, we want it opened quickly, transparently and at low cost — but not again through a syndicate,” the memorandum said.
The ministry said on August 28 that 338 Bangladeshi recruiting agencies would get the opportunity to send workers to Malaysia. Malaysia directly selected 25 of them, while 312 were allowed to work as associates. BOESL will also participate, with the ministry saying the detailed procedure was still being finalised.
The ministry has advised prospective workers not to make payments, undergo medical examinations or submit passports until formal instructions are issued.
The 25 agencies were selected from a list of 423 prepared by Bangladesh. The ministry said Bangladesh had also requested Malaysia to exclude agencies that benefited from the previous recruitment syndicate or were linked to irregularities.
Separately, Malaysia has agreed in principle to recruit 10,000 Bangladeshi workers without migration costs, with the first batch to be sent through BOESL. No departure date has been announced.
The current recruitment arrangement will remain in force until December 31, according to the ministry.
The memorandum was signed by Fakhrul Islam; Baira former senior vice-president Riaz Ul Islam; Md Nurul Amin of Aviate International; Akbar Hossain Manju of Akbar Enterprise; former Baira joint secretary general Mafiz Uddin; Kazi M A Kasem of Al-Jazira International; and former Baira cultural secretary Mohammad Mozammel Haque.
