The government has given permission to the private recruiting agencies to procure demand for jobs from Malaysia to help increase employment opportunities there.
Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment (EWOE) Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain told the FE Wednesday that to speed up the formal migration to Malaysia the authorities concerned have taken such a move. But the process of sending workers to the Southeast Asian country will remain under the previous arrangement, the minister added.
"Private recruiters have been allowed to procure demand from employers' sides for all sectors," the minister said. The employers can also send demand under government to government (G2G) arrangement, he added.
But workers will go under government database and existing process so that migration cost does not exceed Tk 27,000 each, he also said.
Earlier, some media reported that the government gave permission to the private sector for sending workers to Malaysia in all sectors except plantation.
He, however, refuted the media reports on giving clearance to the private recruiters saying no worker had gone to Malaysia under private management yet. And the information over 20,000 visas from Malaysia is also false, he further said.
He said Bangladesh has been negotiating for a long time with Malaysian authorities to rationalise the process so that the employers feel encouraged to send demands for Bangladeshi workers. And recently they agreed with Dhaka on these issues, Mr Hossain mentioned.
To implement the new decision, some of the clauses in the existing G2G agreement will have to be changed and the memorandum of understanding (MoU) will be signed shortly, the minister added.
A small number of Bangladeshis got jobs in the Southeast Asian country so far as there are some complications in processing the demand, the minister said.
The Malaysian rules say that the employers have to pay Malaysian ringgit 1200 as levy for hiring each foreign worker. So, a section of employers takes illegal workers who are going there via sea route, he said.
Recently, the harrowing tales of the sufferings of the human trafficking victims created a stir world over. Thousands of job-seekers fell prey to human smugglers who with the promise of lucrative jobs smuggled them to Malaysia and Thailand through sea route.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) found that between 2012 and June 2014, more than 87,000 people travelled to Thailand and Malaysia through trawlers.
And a report of the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) showed that between 2013 and 2014, nearly 20,000 Bangladeshis travelled through sea route.
So far around 9000 Bangladeshis went to Malaysia with jobs under the government arrangement after signing of a MoU in 2012.
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