The migration cost for Bangladeshi workers travelling to Malaysia has been fixed at Tk154,000 this year, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Ariful Haque Choudhury has said.
He disclosed the decision while speaking to journalists at the Expatriates’ Welfare Building in Dhaka on Thursday morning.
The minister said a final list of approved medical centres would be published by next week.
Under the government-approved arrangement, the migration cost for each worker has been set at Tk154,000. However, some stakeholders have reportedly suggested that the total cost could reach Tk200,000–300,000.
“If recruitment costs had remained within the prescribed limit, workers would not have had to face so much suffering,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL), the country's only state-owned recruiting agency, has taken an initiative to send 10,000 workers to Malaysia entirely free of charge.
As part of the initiative, BOESL has begun the recruitment process for 112 workers for Malaysia-based DHL Supply Chain.
The agency has also received formal job demands for another 558 workers in Malaysia's tourism, manufacturing and caregiving sectors.
The initiatives are expected to ease the financial burden and reduce the difficulties faced by Bangladeshi workers seeking employment in Malaysia, provided recruitment takes place free of charge or within the government-fixed migration cost.
