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HC extends time for probe report on 10 agencies

Labour migration to Malaysia


FE Report | August 22, 2019 00:00:00


The High Court (HC) extended on Wednesday time until November 14 for the submission of a government probe report on the 10 exporters of manpower to Malaysia.

The inter-ministerial committee, which was formed as per an HC order, has been directed to strictly follow this timeline or face contempt of court charges.

An HC bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal passed the order while hearing a writ petition filed by another 10 agencies.

Barrister Rashna Imam, who represented the petitioners, told the FE that a nine-member committee, the Anti-Corruption Commission included, was formed on February 10 to probe corruption by 10 recruitment agencies.

The court also framed terms of reference for the committee, including investigation into the following five matters whether any recruiter other than the 10 agencies sent workers to Malaysia during the period of operation of the oligopoly from March 10, 2017, to December 27, 2018.

It also asked the panel to find whether the workers sent to Malaysia during operation of the oligopoly from March 10, 2017, to December 27, 2018, actually paid around Tk 4.0 lakh each or any amount other than the much lower government-prescribed service charge.

It was Tk 37,500 which was subsequently revised to Tk 1,60,000 for construction/factory workers and Tk 1,40,000 for farmers.

On October 29, 2018, the HC asked the government to form a committee to investigate the monopoly of 10 recruiters and submit the probe report in six months.

It came up with the order and issued a rule following the writ by the aggrieved parties.

The petitioners contested the arbitrary selection of a syndicate of 10 agencies that, they claimed, have deprived over 1,000 competent agencies of their right to run a lawful trade guaranteed under article 40 of the constitution.

The syndicate of the agencies was formed after Bangladesh and Malaysia signed a G-to-G Plus deal in early 2016, creating scope for only 10 recruiters to do monopolistic business.

As per the deal, migration cost was set at Tk 37,500 a person, but was later revised to Tk 160,000 on June 14 last year.

However, actual recruitment cost eventually went up to around Tk 400,000.

Under the deal, 285,000 Bangladeshis have gone to Malaysia since early 2017.

However, Malaysia has suspended recruitment from Bangladesh since September 01, 2018, on allegations of overcharging aspirants by the syndicate and exploiting migrant workers.

The high migration costs decreased migration of workers, resulting in dropping of remittance to the country, the petition said.

The 10 agents in question are Noor Ali of Unique Eastern Pvt Ltd, Ruhul Amin of Catharsis International, Ghulam Mustafa of Prantik Travels & Tourism Ltd, Mohammed Bashir of Rabbi International, Zainal Abedin Zafar of Al Islam Overseas, Ruhul Amin of Amin Tours and Travels, ASM Khairul Amin of Career Overseas Consultants Ltd, Tuhin Siddique of ISMT Human Resources Development Ltd, Arif Alam of Passage Associates and Shaikh Abdullah of Shanjari International.


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