MALAYSIA wants to hire 10,000 Bangladeshi workers to tackle the existing labour shortage in the country – a process that is dragging on due to an alleged syndicate in the South Asian country that is in charge of providing foreign workers here, The Business Standard (TBS) reported.

The Dhaka-based newspaper said the 10,000 workers would enter the country through Government-owned manpower export agency Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL).

BOESL general manager (overseas employment) Banani Biswas said Malaysian authorities had contacted the agency to recruit workers from Bangladesh. 

“As soon as we get the demand letter, we will start sending the workers,” he told TBS.

TBS also quoted a letter from the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) on Friday (Sept 23) as saying that the Human Resources Ministry is implementing a one-off project for the recruitment of foreign workers from Bangladesh through Government to Government (G2G) cooperation.

“The fees payable at the source country is about RM2,100 per foreign worker depending on the exchange rate at the time,” the MEF letter reportedly added.

Malaysia moved to the new one-off project as the previous recruitment process through 25 private Bangladeshi agencies was unable to send sufficient numbers of workers.

TBS also quoted Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan as saying that an overdependence on a small number of source countries like Bangladesh and Indonesia is the cause for delays in the entry of foreign labour into Malaysia.

“The problem is that employers prefer to recruit only Indonesians and Bangladeshis because of issues of language, religion and so on,” he said during a press conference on Thursday (Sept 22).

“Syndicate”, Saravanan at fault

However, TBS quoted industry insiders as saying that the “syndication” of only 25 recruiting agencies was the main reason for the slow hiring process of Bangladeshi workers for Malaysia.

The insiders also blame Saravanan for his alleged involvement in the syndication “that is now performing low”, according to TBS.

Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) secretary-general Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman reportedly said the 25 agencies are “not performers”.

“Most of them have never sent a large number of workers in the last five to 10 years, according to their business profiles. This means they have a major deficit in terms of experience.”

He implied that this is why only 1,200 Bangladeshi workers have gone to Malaysia since a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between both countries in December.

According to the MoU on the Recruitment of Bangladeshi Workers signed on Dec 19, 2021, five million Bangladeshi workers would migrate to Malaysia in five years from 2021 to 2026.

The deal allows for the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers in all sectors, including plantation, agriculture, manufacturing, services, mining, construction and household services.

Dhaka previously said two million workers will go to Malaysia each year, with their minimum salary being RM1,500, in tandem with the minimum wage in Malaysia. – Sept 25, 2022

https://focusmalaysia.my/report-msia-to-hire-10k-bangladeshis-syndicate-to-blame-for-slow-hiring-process/