Malaysia’s labour market is set to reopen after a prolonged suspension marked by scrutiny, political transitions, and deep uncertainty.
For years, the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia has been surrounded by allegations of syndication, excessive recruitment costs, limited access to recruitment services, and practices that left workers bearing the greatest burden of a system over which they had little control.
During the tenure of Sheikh Hasina's government, the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia became increasingly entangled with political and business interests. The recruitment arrangements developed during this period are often linked to the emergence of a syndication model that would later concentrate access to the Malaysian labour market among a select group of agencies. What began under one set of political actors, however, did not end with them.
Over the years, other parliamentarians and politically-connected interests became part of the wider ecosystem, allowing the model to persist and evolve. The problem, therefore, cannot simply be reduced to one minister, one political party, or one period of government.
At its core was a recruitment structure in which access became concentrated, while aspiring migrant workers bore the consequences through high costs, uncertainty, and limited choice.
For Bangladeshi workers, these were never simply matters of policy or politics. They meant years of waiting, borrowing money, paying recruitment fees, and placing their hopes in a system that often seemed designed around everything except the worker.
The consequences became painfully visible on May 31, 2024, when hundreds of aspiring migrant workers gathered at Dhaka airport, waiting to leave for Malaysia. Their recruiting agencies had failed to provide their air tickets before the deadline set by the Malaysian government expired that day. Malaysia closed its labour market to Bangladeshi workers from June 1. It was yet another painful repetition of a cycle in which migrant workers were left to bear the consequences of decisions over which they had little control.
However, the long suspension also created something that had been missing for years: An opportunity to rethink the system.
As Bangladesh emerged from 15 years under the same ruling party and moved through a political transition towards a new governing arrangement, there was hope that reopening the Malaysian labour market could mean more than simply restarting recruitment. Perhaps this time, recruitment could be more transparent. Perhaps agencies would be selected according to clear and measurable standards rather than political or business connections. Perhaps workers would no longer have to pay disproportionate sums simply for the opportunity to work.
There was, in other words, room for change.
But now, as Malaysia prepares to reopen the market with a fresh list of 25 recruiting agencies, an uncomfortable question remains: Does changing the names on the list amount to changing the system?
If the selection process continues to rely on a limited pool of agencies without sufficiently examining their recruitment history, worker complaints, fee structures, treatment of migrants, and compliance with fair recruitment standards, then the underlying problem remains. The same concentration of power could simply return under a different configuration.
And if that happens, it will be the migrant worker who pays the price once again.
The lesson from the previous system should not simply be that too few agencies were involved. It should be that concentrating recruitment among a select group without strong safeguards and accountability creates the conditions for exploitation. The number of agencies matters, but so does how they are selected, monitored, and held accountable.
A credible reopening should therefore begin with transparent selection criteria. Agencies should be assessed not only on their licences or administrative capacity, but also on their track record in fair recruitment practices, worker protection, compliance with agreed recruitment costs, and grievance handling.
Workers should be able to understand what they are paying for, where their money is going, what employment has been promised to them, and where they can seek help when those promises are not honoured.
This also requires stronger accountability on both sides of the migration corridor. Bangladesh and Malaysia need mechanisms to monitor recruitment practices, address worker complaints, and ensure that agencies or employers who violate agreed standards face meaningful consequences. Fair recruitment cannot depend on goodwill alone; it requires systems capable of enforcing it.
Most importantly, recruitment should no longer be treated as a transaction in which the worker is simply the final commodity being moved between two labour markets. A worker is not merely a unit of labour to be recruited, transported, and placed. The recruitment process determines the debt they carry, the expectations they leave home with and, ultimately, the vulnerability they may face at their destination.
A reopened labour market will inevitably be welcomed as an opportunity for thousands of Bangladeshis seeking employment abroad. It should be. Malaysia has long been an important destination for Bangladeshi workers, and legitimate employment opportunities can transform the lives of families.
But reopening the labour market cannot become the destination in itself.
The real test will come after the first worker leaves Bangladesh: How much did they pay? How accurately did the job match the promise? What protection did they receive? And who will stand beside them if something goes wrong?
If the answers remain unchanged, then we have not reopened a labour market; we have simply reopened an old system.
For years, Bangladeshi migrant workers have carried the cost of recruitment failures through debt, deception, uncertainty, and lost opportunities. They deserve more than a new list of recruiting agencies. They deserve a recruitment system in which transparency is the rule, accountability is enforceable, and dignity is treated as a condition of migration, not an afterthought.
Efrita Jahan is currently part of the BRAC Migration Program.