Malaysia has recruited another batch of Bangladeshi workers for its plantation sector under astate-level arrangementensuring low-cost migration.
The Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) received a list of 174 selected workers on Saturday from Malaysia, officials said Sunday.
“Visas of 174 workers have arrived,”Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan told the Dhaka Tribune at his office Sunday. “We have planned to send the workers to Malaysia on August 27,” he added.
A BMET director said the national carriers of the two countries would fly the workers. The bureau is processing the workers’ transfer to Malaysia.
“We have already sent messages to the workers concerned to come with their passports and bring Tk 29,000 each,” the director said.
The migration cost of Tk29,000 includes airfare, service charges, welfare fees and taxes. A migrant worker can expect to earn a monthly wage of Tk25,000, sources said.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian interior ministry has also given clearance for 400 workers and their visas would be sent over soon, the overseas employment secretary said.
Zafar also said a high-level team would hold bi-lateral talks with the Malaysian government soon to ease the migration process to the Southeast Asian nation.
A delegation led by Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain would travel to Malaysia on Wednesday after attending a conference in Indonesia. The team is also scheduled to go to Singapore on Friday to discuss sending workers there.
“We will have meetings with the human resources and home ministers of Malaysia, so that labour migration to that country becomes smooth,” Zafar said.
Following a bi-lateral agreement last November, the Malaysian government resumed recruiting workers from Bangladesh in a low-cost, transparent manner. A total of 198 workers went to Malaysia in April under the new deal.
Malaysia had stopped recruitment from Bangladesh in 2009, citing corruption in the migration process. Earlier, a private recruiting agency charged Tk200,000 to Tk400,000 to send a worker to that country.