Allegations of illegal visa trading have arisen against more than 1,100 Bangladeshi recruiting agencies that remain unapproved by the Malaysian government.
They have also been reported to compromise the manpower market in Malaysia for Bangladeshis by involving themselves in illegal visa trading, causing migration costs to go up exponentially.
The migration charges for those willing to get overseas employment in the Southeast Asian country have been increasing indiscriminately.
The aspiring migrants need to pay more than Tk5-Tk7 lakh per person, as against government-set migration fees and visa processing fees of only Tk1.52 lakh, excluding airfares.
The additional Tk2.50-Tk4 lakh is reportedly going into the pockets of unauthorized agencies in the name of visa trading.
Most of that illegally-acquired money is being laundered to different countries, alleged members of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira).
They also claimed that representatives or owners of those unauthorized agencies have been blaming the 101 Bangladesh Recruiting Agencies (BRA), approved by the Malaysian government under the Appendix B of the Memorandum of Understating (MoU) signed between the two countries, for overcharging and laundering that amount from the country.
What the law states for the recruiting agencies
According to Appendix B: Para: C-V of the MoU, the Government of Malaysia shall select a BRA automatically through the online system from the list provided by the Bangladesh Government.
Para VI of the MoU stated that the Malaysian Government shall ensure transparency and fairness of the online system for selection of a recruiting agency and distribution of quota.
Para 6.1 of the resolution of the Joint Working Group Meeting of Malaysia and Bangladesh stated Bangladesh side mentioned that the recruitment of workers from Bangladesh to Malaysia will be based on the MoU between these two countries on the employment of workers, according to Article C(v) and C(vi) of Appendix B of the MoU.
Following the provisions mentioned in the MoU and resolution of the Joint Working Group Meeting, the Malaysian government has selected the 101 Bangladesh recruiting agencies.
Allegations
Representatives and/or owners of some of those agencies, which also worked with approved agencies to send workers to Malaysia as associate agencies, are also raising voices ahead of the upcoming Baira election to get the support of the general voters, they claimed.
Responding to the demands of recruiting agencies, the Bangladesh government selected 735 more recruiting agencies to assist the 101 agencies as associate agencies for collecting migrants and sending those to Malaysia.
Out of 1,520 valid agencies, 836 agencies got the scope of sending workers.
Through the authorized agencies, a total of 476,500 Bangladeshi migrants have already travelled to Malaysia from 2022 to May 31 this year.
Around 17,000 aspiring migrants, who have failed to go before May 31, may also fly soon through the valid agencies.
Those agencies have been getting demand letters and visas through the automatic system of FSMCS from Malaysian employers following its visa allocation system.
They do not need to pay anyone for receiving demand letters and visas.
But a group of agencies, comprising 694 of the remaining valid agencies and unapproved by the Malaysian government, and around 400 more illegal agencies, are allegedly involved in the illegal visa trading business.
They have been buying demands letters and visas from some employers, which do not have much capacity to employ foreign workers, expensing more than Tk1 lakh to Tk1.50 lakh each.
According to sources, the Human Resource Development Center of Fakhrul Islam along with Tribeni International and Celebrity International were involved with illegal visa trading in last two years from 2022 to May 31 this year and have earned crores of Taka, in the name of medical exams.
According to Baira leaders, travelling with the demand letters and visas of those unauthorized agencies, most of the Bangladeshi migrants have been facing trouble in their workplaces even after paying additional migration fees to the recruiting agencies.
Such incidents have been tarnishing the country’s image to the foreign employers, they further said.
When contacted, Baira secretary general Ali Haider Chowdhury said that the manpower migration system must be conducted with the agencies which were authorized from employer countries.
Such unauthorized agencies must be prevented to illegal visa trading and pocketing additional money in the name of visa trading, he added.
