Preparations taken to seek applications from job seekers in Malaysia

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Arafat Ara
The government has taken preparation to seek applications from the job seekers in Malaysia following the singing of agreements between Dhaka and Kuala Lumpur recently, sources said.
We have completed necessary arrangements and waiting to advertise in daily newspapers for required workers according to the demand of the Southeast Asian country, said a BMET official.
He said after Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment (EWOE) Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain's return from Malaysia, the draft application procedures will be finalised, as it might have some minor changes.
We can launch registration programme in early December and the job seekers will get one or two days to get registered, he added.
EWOE Minister Mr Hossain is expected to return home December 2, according to the ministry officials.
Bangladesh and Malaysia have signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) Monday last on the resumption of manpower recruitment and cooperation in preventing and combating transnational crimes between the two governments, sources said.
As per the Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) at first we will seek application from the enthusiastic job seekers for plantation sector, the BMET official said.
Initially the employing country will recruit nearly 30,000 labourers for its plantation sector to meet up immediate demand, he added.
As per the MoU, the migration cost will be Tk 40,000 each for the purposes of skill test, 10 days' pre-departure training, booklet on direction about immigration, medical test, air fair and other related expenditures.
The job seekers will have not to pay full amount of money at a time. They have to pay the cost at different times for different functions. Necessary fees and air fare will be deposited through expatriate welfare bank.
The candidates will be selected from every district according to the demographic quota of Ministry of Public Administration. As per the system the districts will get more quotas, which have more population.
The job seekers interested to go to Malaysia have to be registered through online, and previous registration will not be valid, said the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) officials.
The registration will be held in every division on different days across the country where the job seekers can register their name and collect necessary documents.
If necessary, people can be registered from the union information centres across the country, they said.
According to the selection procedure, it will not be accepted, if anyone is registered twice.
The workers who had been deported from Malaysia earlier would also not be qualified to go to the country again.
The selected job seekers will be given 10 days pre-departure orientation course, undergo medical test which will be taken place in 13 Technical Training Centers (TTC) in different places in the country.
The first batch of workers from Bangladesh is expected to leave in January following the signing of MoUs between Malaysia and Bangladesh.
The authority has suggested the job seekers not to deal with the middlemen and give money for the purpose of migration to Malaysia.
Earlier, some dishonest manpower agents sent a large number of workers to Malaysia with fake visas and charged each person nearly Tk 200,000. Following malpractice by recruiting agencies, Malaysia stopped hiring labourers from Bangladesh in 2009.
Nearly 50,000 workers will fly to Malaysia every six months under the state arrangements, sources said.
EWOE Minister Mr Hossain left Dhaka last week for Kuala Lumpur accompanied by secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan, Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) Director General Shamsun Nahar and director of Training Standard and Planning Nurul Islam to sign the MoU.