Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus is leaving for Malaysia on Monday on a three-day official visit. On Tuesday, he is scheduled to hold a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
The primary focus of the meeting will be on migration. Investment will also be discussed. However, according to the Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam, the main priority of this visit will be migration-related matters.
Relevant parties believe that the chief adviser’s trip is aimed at reviving Malaysia’s labour market, which has been closed for more than a year. There are, however, concerns over the issue of “syndicates” in opening the labour market.
Training underway for workers unable to go to Malaysia
The last date for Bangladeshi workers to enter Malaysia was May 31 last year. From June 1 onwards, Malaysia stopped taking workers from Bangladesh and other countries.
As a result, nearly 17,000 Bangladeshi workers, despite having the necessary documents, could not travel to Malaysia
Many of these workers have not yet received refunds. However, there is a hopeful sign — Malaysia has approved a list of 7,926 of these workers. In the first phase, they will be recruited into various sectors in Malaysia.
The recruitment process for these workers has already been initiated by Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL), under the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment.
According to BOESL sources, since July this year, text messages have been sent to workers on Malaysia’s approved list in the first phase. The SMS states: “To avail the opportunity to work as a construction worker in Malaysia, you are requested to attend a 15-day training starting from July 27 at 9am at the Bangladesh-Korea Technical Training Centre in Chittagong. At the same time, you are warned to refrain from any kind of financial transactions.”
A BOESL official, on condition of anonymity, said that text messages were sent to the numbers of registered workers from the primary list at the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET).
They were instructed to contact their nearest technical training centre. There are quotas not only in the construction sector but also in the service sector. However, it is still undecided when the workers will start going to Malaysia. “We are training them and keeping them prepared,” the official added.
Concerns over syndicates in labour market
The issue of syndicates has always been discussed in Malaysia’s labour market.
The labour market was shut in 2008, then reopened in 2016 after eight years. In 2018, Malaysia once again stopped taking workers from Bangladesh, citing corruption allegations.
It took three years to reopen the market after a new memorandum of understanding was signed on December 18, 2021. In August 2022, Bangladeshi workers began going to Malaysia again.
However, on June 1, 2024, the market was closed once more. There are allegations that Malaysia’s labour market is controlled by syndicates. A large amount of money reportedly goes into syndicate pockets under the guise of migration costs. A section of manpower exporters is demanding a syndicate-free labour market.
On August 7, a section of manpower exporters sent a letter to Adviser Asif Nazrul, demanding that Malaysia’s labour market be opened to all valid recruiting agencies.
The letter stated that under the direct patronage of the previous autocratic and fascist government, a corrupt syndicate emerged in the Malaysian labour market, resulting in thousands of poor, innocent workers being exploited and the country’s image being severely tarnished.
This syndicate, formed during the fascist regime, was led by former Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) Secretary General Ruhul Amin Swapon and Dato’ Sri Amin Noor, along with several former ministers, MPs, and influential individuals from the previous government.
The syndicate allegedly extorted over Tk12,000 crore from Malaysia-bound workers by charging excessive fees, as reported by various international organisations and domestic media.
Multiple cases are ongoing at various police stations, and investigations are being conducted by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the CID.
The manpower exporters claim there were no criteria or transparency for including agencies in the list for sending workers to Malaysia. Instead, the syndicate added licences in exchange for Tk5–7 crore each. They charged each worker an additional Tk1.52 lakh as a syndicate fee.
They also took Tk3,000 per worker as commission for medical check-ups. As a result, migration costs increased and the reputations of both countries were damaged.
According to them, irregularities, corruption, and money laundering increased, and the labour market faced repeated closures. Employers who wanted to hire workers at no cost could not take workers from Bangladesh because of the syndicate fee. The number of such missed opportunities is estimated to be more than a hundred thousand.
Former BAIRA joint secretary general Md Fakhrul Islam said that the previous agreement was deliberately signed to allow the Malaysian government to choose recruiting agencies at its discretion.
“Malaysia hires workers from 14 other countries, and none of them have such a condition. Bangladesh sends workers to 76 countries, and nowhere do we have such a requirement. In the past, ministers prioritised the syndicate and their interests. That is why we say — by giving opportunities to a few, some 2,400 agencies out of 2,500 could not operate in this market. If those 100 agencies had sent workers and they could go at a low cost, we would have no objections. But workers faced problems after arrival and had to spend extra money,” he said.
The 2021 agreement: Conditions for forming a ‘syndicate’
Four years ago, in 2021, a new labour agreement was signed with Malaysia, valid for five years. The agreement stated that all costs on the Malaysian side would be borne by the employer. These included recruitment agency fees, bringing the worker to Malaysia, accommodation, employment, and repatriation costs.
However, under this condition, the number of workers going to Malaysia at zero migration cost was very low. Most workers spent Tk4–5 lakh, with some spending up to Tk6 lakh.
From October 2022, BOESL began sending workers to Malaysia completely free of charge through a government arrangement, but in very small numbers.
The agreement also stipulated that the Malaysian government would determine the number of recruiting agencies. This led to allegations of syndicate formation among recruiting agencies. Initially, the Malaysian government fixed the number at 25 agencies, later increasing it to 100, even though there are more than 1,500 registered recruiting agencies in Bangladesh.
In 2018, Malaysia stopped taking workers from Bangladesh, citing corruption allegations against 10 recruiting agencies. Of those 10, five were included in the new list of 25 agencies after the 2021 agreement. The number of designated agencies eventually rose to 101.
On May 21, a Malaysia-Bangladesh Joint Working Group meeting was held in Dhaka. At the time, the Chief Adviser’s Special Envoy on International Affairs, Lutfey Siddiqi, said that workers who could not go to Malaysia would be taken through BOESL. Additionally, the process of sending about 8,000 workers through BOESL was being expedited.
He said that because Bangladesh has a large number of recruiting agencies, the Malaysian government preferred to take workers through a limited number of agencies. Therefore, in the Joint Working Group meeting, it was discussed that if necessary, the memorandum of understanding could be amended to ensure transparency.
On July 2, at a seminar titled “Japan’s Labour Market: Opportunities and Challenges,” organised by the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment at the International Mother Language Institute, Adviser Asif Nazrul said: “The previous government signed a contract with Malaysia saying, ‘You will give us a list of recruiting agencies and we will select them.’ This is what we call a syndicate. Now, when we took office, everyone told us that there should be no syndicate. If we want to remove the syndicate, the agreement has to be changed. We can’t force Malaysia to do it; we have to negotiate with them.”
He added: “If I send people through the syndicate, everyone will say I am involved with the syndicate. But if I don’t send workers, then 40,000 of our workers will be unable to go. Malaysia will remember this. As a result, in the future, one or two lakh of our families will suffer.”
On Malaysia’s syndicate issue, Asif Nazrul said: “This was done during the fascist Sheikh Hasina’s regime. It created a huge scope for corruption. The agreement they signed has now become a burden for us. We are trying to change it.”
What Bangladesh High Commission says about worker recruitment in Malaysia
Malaysia has decided to recruit workers from among those who could not go to the country by May last year.
On August 1, the Bangladesh High Commission in Malaysia issued a notice with this information.
The notice stated: “Approval has been received from the relevant Malaysian authorities for the employment of workers in Malaysia through Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL) from among those who could not come to Malaysia by May 31 last year. The Malaysian government has decided to employ these workers in the construction and tourism sectors.
“For the verification of demand letters for tourism sector workers going to Malaysia, all required information must be submitted to Malaysia’s Foreign Workers Centralized Management System (FWCMS) online portal as per the attached checklist.”
It added: “For construction sector workers, all applications must be submitted through the country’s Construction Labour Exchange Centre Berhad (CLAB) with the required information to the FWCMS portal. In addition, the original copy and one photocopy of all information submitted to the FWCMS portal must be submitted to the Bangladesh High Commission.”
