The newly appointed Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam has asked aspiring migrants not to attempt to go to Malaysia at this time because the modalities of manpower export to the country had not yet been finalised.
The minister said: “Discussions are in the preliminary stages. I request aspiring migrants not to deal with brokers to go to Malaysia.”
A four-member Malaysian delegation led by Mustafa Bin Ibrahim, director general of the Malaysian immigration department, is in Dhaka to finalise the mechanism for importing Bangladeshi manpower.
The Malaysian delegation met with the minister from 10am to 11am. From 11am to noon, it met with expatriates’ welfare Secretary Khandaker Iftekhar Haidar.
When asked about allegations that some recruiting agencies and Malaysian companies were allegedly trying to form manpower trade syndicates, the minister replied: “Nobody can buy me.”
The salary of Bangladeshi labourers was also discussed at the meeting, the secretary said.
The minister said Bangladeshi workers will be paid a minimum of RM900 or approximately $225 per month. The Malaysian government expects to import 1.5 million workers from Bangladesh, but travel costs and fees have not been finalised.
“The migration costs to go to Malaysia have not been finalised but aspiring migrants may go to Malaysia on Business to Business (B2B) contracts. The Government to Government (G2G) process will remain in place as well. Both those who are registered in the database and those who are not may go to Malaysia,” the minister said.
Malaysia now wants to import man-power for work on plantations, agriculture, mill factories, service and the construction sector.
They only took in workers for the plantation sector under the G2G process that was initiated in 2012. Between 2009 and 2012 Malaysia did not import Bangladeshi labour.
On August 9 and 10, the delegation attended a meeting with the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) and the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) Director General Begum Shamsun Nahar.
A BMET official told the Dhaka Tribune, requesting anonymity, that the Malaysian delegation wanted to know whether it was possible for Bangladesh to supply 50,000 workers per month.
The government maintains a database with 1.4 million aspiring migrants on it and there were 71 technical training centres in Bangladesh, the official quoted Shamsun Nahar as saying in reply.
“So we can train 30,000 workers in 15 days to send to Malaysia,” the official quoted the director general as saying.
At the meeting it was proposed that migration costs be capped at Tk65,000. It costs Tk35,000 to go to Malaysia on the G2G process, the official said.
Baira strongly urged the Malaysian delegation to allow private sector manpower recruitment agencies to be able to send workers to Malaysia.
“We urged the delegation to control the illegal competition of their recruiting companies as had happened before 2009, because this increases the costs of migration,” Baira President Abul Basher told the Dhaka Tribune.
