The Bangladesh High Commission in Malaysia on Tuesday welcomed the first batch of migrant workers to Malaysia after nearly a four-year hiatus.
A total of 53 workers under the supervision of the recruiting agency Catharsis International landed in Kuala Lumpur on an AirAsia flight in the morning.
Bangladesh High Commissioner to Malaysia Md Golam Sarwar greeted the expats at the airport and said: "Maintain the honor of the country and work in accordance with the laws of Malaysia. We will always be by your side.”
On the other hand, Malaysian Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri M Saravanan said in a statement: “The first batch entered as per the agreement with Malaysia last December. The high commissioner of Bangladesh welcomed them and they will work in the manufacturing sector.”
The Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) expects to send 600,000-800,000 migrant workers to Malaysia in the next six months.
The migrant workers will work in factories of the company under a three-year contract with a salary of Tk32,000 per month. The company will bear the air fare to travel to Malaysia, accommodation, and transport costs, but it will not provide food.
The Malaysian authorities have decided to open recruitment of Bangladeshi workers in all sectors, including plantation, agriculture, manufacturing, services, mining, construction, and household services.
Currently, some 200,000-300,000 undocumented Bangladeshis are living in Malaysia. Manpower export to Malaysia was suspended in 2018.
According to the BMET, Bangladesh exported a total of 485,893 workers during the January-November period of 2021, a total of 217,669 in 2020, 700,159 in 2019, 734,181 in 2018, 10008, 528 in 2017 and 757,731 workers in 2016 to different countries.
Manpower exports to Malaysia were recorded at 919 in 2009, 742 in 2011 and 804 in 2012, 3,853 in 2013 and 5,134 in 2014.
Bangladesh had exported a total of 1.06 million skilled and unskilled workers to the Southeast Asian country in the 1976--2019 period, according to the BMET.
