Malaysian Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail on Sunday said Malaysia wants to reduce migration costs.
“Representatives of Bangladesh and Malaysia will sit to review whether there is a need to change the current agreement,” he said.
He made the comments after a meeting with Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmed at the respective ministry on Sunday.
Saifuddin Nasution said: “We talked about the agreement that was made earlier. The Malaysian government wants to facilitate the migration process. The main objective is to meet the needs, reduce the migration costs and protect the dignity of foreign workers.”
“If the current process does not meet the goal, we are ready to make changes through discussion,” he added.
There are currently 1.5 million foreign workers in Malaysia, of which 450,000 are Bangladeshis, said the Malaysian home minister.
“That's why Bangladesh ranks first among the 15 countries from where foreign workers are migrating to Malaysia. Bangladeshi workers are making a huge contribution to Malaysia's economy,” he said.
The Malaysian minister also said: “Today, we had a fruitful discussion on two issues. First, about making the recalibration program faster. Second, Malaysian government's commitment to reduce the migration costs.”
Regarding the recalibration program, Nasution said: “There are many illegal workers in Malaysia. They are being made legal through a process. This process started last year. I would like to inform that 55% of the legalization approvals that we have given in one week are Bangladeshis.”
“I have requested Minister Imran Ahmed to cooperate so that we can meet the needs of our workers,” he added.
The Malaysian home minister is paying a “working visit” to Bangladesh to discuss about manpower recruitment in an effort to make the overall recruitment process more transparent and expeditious.
This is the first minister-level visit from the Southeast Asian country since the formation of a new government there.