M’sia freezes hiring workers from Bangladesh thru govt channel

M’sia freezes hiring workers from Bangladesh thru govt channel

Dhaka, Jun 23 (Just News): The Malaysian government on Friday suspended its Government to Government Plus, in short G2G Plus arrangements with Bangladesh for hiring the latter’s workers.

Malaysian human resources minister M Kulasegaran announced the decision in Kuala Lumpur, according to a Malaysian daily’s report.

‘This suspension will last until a full investigation has been completed into allegations that a syndicate was operating it as a human trafficking scheme to exploit these workers,’ The Star published from Kuala Lumpur reported quoted the Malaysian HR Minister in its Friday’s edition.

‘The previous administration managed the whole recruitment process like a business aimed at benefiting certain individuals,’ said Kulasegaran.

He called the whole process as ‘a total mess that had resulted in the migrant workers paying exorbitant amounts of money to several middlemen in both Bangladesh and Malaysia.

‘We are investigating this, and are in the process of fixing the problem. There have been discussions going on at various levels on the matter and I believe we will be able to find a solution soon,’ he said.

‘Until then, Malaysia would go back to the old system so that the application process could be managed by the government,’ he said.

In a separate report published in the same edition, The Star revealed a human trafficking syndicate, spearheaded by a Bangladeshi businessman with alleged political connections with the Home Ministry of Malaysia raked in at least two billion Malaysian Ringgit in just two years from Bangladeshi workers looking to get jobs in Malaysia.

Due to his strong political influence in both Malaysia and Bangladesh, the businessman was also instrumental in getting the two countries to sign the Government-to-Government agreement in 2016, giving only 10 recruiting agencies in Bangladesh the right to recruit migrant workers for Malaysia from Bangladesh.

An investigation revealed that each worker paid Ringgit 20,000, equivalent to Tk 4.44 lakh to their local agents who then paid half of the sum to the syndicate to facilitate approval of work permit and flight ticket to Malaysia.

Despite the hefty price tag, the whole process – from documentation to transporting these workers to Malaysia cost a recruiting agent less than Ringgit 2,000 per worker.

When contacted, expatriate’s welfare and overseas employment ministry’s secretary Nomita Halder avoided making comments on the issue.

Bangladesh High Commissioner in Kuala Lumpur Md Shahidul Islam neither took calls on his cell phone nor replied to queries sent to him using text messages.
Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agency’s joint secretary general Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman told New Age that he learnt about the malpractices from newspaper reports.

According to Bangladesh’s Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, since 2016, nearly 2.20 lakh Bangladeshi workers were sent to Malaysia under the G2G plus system.

When asked, migrant rights campaigner and WARBE Development Foundation’s secretary general Farique Ahmed demanded banning the syndicate of recruiting agencies to ensure migration of workers to Malaysia at low costs.

He welcomed the Malaysian authorities’ decision to crack the syndicate for cheating migrant workers.

(Justnews/ys/2113hr)