Malaysian labour market closed again to BD workers

That Malaysia once again is set to close its labour market to Bangladeshi migrant workers starting June 01 next highlights the danger of Bangladesh's flawed manpower export system in which fraudulent recruiting agencies enjoy free rein to exploit outbound workers. Although the authorities cited an oversupply of workers as the reason for restricting the entry of Bangladeshi workers, stakeholders pointed out that market mismanagement could be the main cause. This is the fifth time Malaysia has imposed restrictions on the entry of Bangladeshi workers, with earlier restrictions implemented in 1996, 2001, 2009, and 2018. Of late, Oman and the UAE have also imposed similar restrictions due to the exploitation of migrant workers and malpractices in the manpower sector. Regrettably, the authorities responsible for overseeing the manpower sector activities have failed to learn any lesson from the past mistakes and address the problems. Their failures have not only made the expatriate workers vulnerable to exploitation but also affected the manpower export potential.

Closure of several vital manpower export markets will have a serious impact on the foreign exchange earnings of the country on the one hand and the livelihood of the families of the job seekers on the other. Remittance inflow has been erratic for the past few months; it will be further affected by this unwanted turn of events. For the last couple of months, it has been frequently reported that about 0.1 to 0.2 million Bangladeshis who migrated to Malaysia, spending their last farthings, were thrown into tremendous hardships as they didn't find the jobs they were promised. Even a panel of UN experts voiced their concern over the miserable condition of Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia, putting the country under significant international pressure to uphold workers' rights. Since then stakeholders concerned started fearing that Kuala Lumpur would soon impose restrictions on the entry of Bangladeshi workers. The government agencies concerned were aware of the developments but unfortunately did not do anything tangible to avert the closure of this vital market.

Malaysia reopened its labour market to Bangladeshi workers in 2022 following a two-year closure. At that time, it was expected that steps would be taken to streamline the recruitment system, but to no avail. A group of 100 Bangladeshi recruiting agencies allegedly formed a syndicate to send workers to Malaysia, charging each worker as much as Tk 0.5 million instead of the government-fixed Tk 80,000. About 0.4 million workers have gone to Malaysia since 2022, but a substantial number of them did not find the jobs they were promised upon arrival. Fraudulent manpower agencies in Malaysia were also involved in this scam, while regulatory bodies in both countries blindly approved the hiring procedures. Going by the promises made by the ministry concerned to set things right, everyone expected the situation would be better this time. But that didn't happen.

Considering the importance of remittance earning by migrant workers, the problem and prospect of the manpower export sector come under discussion time and again. At a certain point, government to government (G2G) recruitment protocol was advanced to bypass the recruiting malpractices. Why was it stymied? It would be in the fitness of things to revive the negotiations on the G2G recruitment process for ensuring Bangladeshi workers' unhindered entry into that Southeast Asian stable and expanding job market.