Each Malaysia-bound migrant has to pay Tk5,000 extra to travel by Malaysian airlines, as Biman Bangladesh Airlines fails to maintain its flight schedule.
A migrant needs Tk18,000 to travel to Malaysia by Biman while they require Tk23,000 to fly to Malaysia by Malaysian Airlines.
In the wake of Biman’s flight disruption, the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) has started sending the Malaysia-bound migrant workers by Malaysian air.
Officials at BMET said a batch of over 100 migrant labourers had to wait for four days to travel to Malaysia, as Biman failed to operate its flight in time.
The employers in Malaysia felt irritated as they could not receive the migrant workers at a specific time at their airports in Malaysia.
“We were embarrassed as the Malaysian employers were annoyed because of flight disruption to Bangladesh Biman,” a senior official at BMET told the Dhaka Tribune over the phone yesterday, preferring not to be named.
The official also said if the migrants had flown by Biman Bangladesh airlines, the national flag carrier would have earned revenues and the workers would have to paid less.
“We wanted to send our workers by our airline, but Biman Bangladesh failed to operate its flights in time,” BMET additional Director General Jabed Ahmed said.
He also said the Malaysian employers were reluctant to receive workers after 8pm, but the aircraft of Biman lands at airports in Malaysia around 1am.
The workers could not stay at the airport for a long time, and it was a great problem for them, he added.
A senior official of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism said two aircraft remained grounded, creating problems in maintaining flight schedules.
“We are trying to improve the situation as one aircraft (Boeing 777) will be added to the fleet,” the official said, seeking anonymity.
The government is sending workers to Malaysia under a government-to-government arrangement, with a low migration cost.
A migrant worker needs only around Tk33,000 to go to Malaysia while earlier, the worker had to pay around Tk2,00,000 to Tk3,00,000.
A migrant gets wages of around Tk20,000 a month.
An assistant director of BMET said a total of 715 visas had recently been received from Malaysia.
Aspiring workers had beensent messages telling them to come to BMET with passports, added the official.
A total of 2,390 workers have gone to Malaysia under the government-to-government system after an agreement between the two governments in November 2012.
