Workers' outflow to Malaysia gets momentum

The outflow of workers to Malaysia has picked up in recent months amid allegations of charging much higher migration costs than the officially- fixed rate along with deception by a section of recruitment agencies.
Bangladesh sent 228,097 workers to the Southeast Asian country in the fiscal year (FY) 2022-23. Of the total, 178,086 workers went during the second half of the last fiscal.
Sector insiders said Malaysia is a popular destination for Bangladeshi workers; but whenever this market is opened, the rate of fraud increases.
Recruiters' greed for higher profits, and non-transparent migration processes in both countries are the reasons behind this.
In the initial months, workers outflow took off slowly and averaged at around 10,000 per month during the August-December period of 2022, before started rising since January last, according to data of Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET).
Recruiters said the trend will continue in the coming days.
Malaysia started hiring workers from the country in August 2022, after a four-year pause; but the outflow of workers slowed due to factors like syndication by the recruiters.
In the first five months (August to December), 49,961 workers could go to the country for jobs.
On the other hand, the government has fixed Tk77,990 as the cost of migration for each of the workers bound to that country. However, the workers are paying up to Tk500,000 each.
Besides, a section of recruiters realise money from jobseekers before receiving the job demand from the employers.
For example, the government is giving approval for 100 workers but the recruiters are taking money from 300 workers promising to send them to the country, officials linked to the migration process for Malaysia said.
At the end of the day, the workers are falling into uncertainty and may lose the money, they observed.
A A Mamun Nasim, programme coordinator, Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program (OKUP), said they often hear of workers going to Malaysia spending Tk400,000 to Tk 500,000 each.
"Even we're receiving information from the field that some workers are not getting work in that country," he said.
Aminul Islam of Narayanganj paid Tk 460,000 to a broker to go to Malaysia. But he does not know when his flight is.
He even does not know what kind of work he is being sent for because he is being sent under the name of a free visa.
"I know the government has fixed a cost. But that cost is only on paper and has no practical application," he said. Ten other workers like him paid the broker to go to Malaysia at the same cost, as him.
He said they have no option but to accept the charges set by the recruiters.
"You can say I'm completely empty to meet these expenses as I raised this money by selling my only shop and borrowing," the worker said.
OKUP's AA Mamun Nasim said due to the syndication of recruiters, such unethical practices are happening, and in this case, the government definitely failed to prevent fraud, he added.
In other words, the government has not taken any proper initiative to regulate the whimsical business of recruiters, he observed.
Malaysia is now the second largest labour-receiving country for Bangladesh after Saudi Arabia in terms of the number of outbound workers.
In the last six months of the just-concluded financial year, Saudi Arabia hired about 36 per cent or 226,150 workers while Malaysia recruited about 29 per cent or 178,086 workers from Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) president Mohammad Abul Bashar said currently, 100 licensed recruitment agencies are enlisted to send workers to Malaysia. And 200-300 more recruiters work with the agencies in the sending process.
Each recruiter has a demand for 1,000 to 1,500 workers at present.
When asked, he said they have verbally informed the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment about charging extra migration cost and not getting jobs of some workers.
"Besides, we've informed the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Human Resources and the Prime Minister of Malaysia through a letter so that they take action in this regard," he added.
Shahidul Alam, director general of the BMET, said they are also hearing that the workers are going to Malaysia by spending extra migration costs.
But the workers have not complained to them, so far. If complaints are received, action will be taken, he said.
He urged the workers to beware before going to Malaysia so that they do not have to face problems.
Malaysia mainly hires plantation, agriculture, construction and manufacturing workers from Bangladesh.
Workers get a monthly basic wage of Malaysian Ringgit 1,500 (about Tk 36,000) each, as per the fresh wage structure.
Bangladeshis working in Malaysia sent remittances worth US$1.12 billion home in the FY 2022-23 and $1.02 billion in the FY 2021-22, Bangladesh Bank statistics showed.
Dhaka and Kuala Lumpur on December 19, 2021 signed the latest Memorandum of Understanding on the hiring of Bangladeshi workers.
Malaysia stopped workers' recruitment from the country in 2018 following alleged high migration costs.
Over 1.2 million Bangladeshis had gone to the labour-receiving country for jobs since 1978, according to BMET account.

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