Minister: Talks with Malaysia over manpower export this month

The much-awaited joint bilateral working technical committee meeting between the governments of Bangladesh and Malaysia will be held this month to discuss manpower export, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam has said.

“We have sent a letter to the newly-formed government of Malaysia in this regard. Once they give their approval, we can expect the technical committee to have their first meeting by this month,” the minister said on Monday.

On issue of increasing arrests of Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia, the minister said: “Those who entered the country illegally were given a deadline to get their paperwork done. But as the deadline passed, those who did not complete the procedure were arrested. Such workers are few in numbers.”

Nurul said the illegal workers will have to return to Bangladesh.

“But that applies to workers who came illegally any country.”

The drive against illegal workers has been going on in Malaysia since July 1 and the issue of legalizing illegal nationals will be raised during the joint committee’s meeting.

According to sources at the Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, the deadline for Bangladeshis was over last month. Currently, there are one million workers in Malaysia, 60% of them legal and 40% illegal.

According to a report by Malaysian daily The Star, Malaysian Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran has said their government had suspended the system currently in place for the recruitment of migrant workers from Bangladesh.

When asked about this, Nurul said it will not hamper the process of sending workers over there.

“The Malaysian government has not officially informed us about this, but since they have a demand for workers, they are likely to keep taking Bangladeshi workers,” he said.

He added that there is no chance of the process to be suspended, nor has there been any request to re-evaluate the recruitment deal.

About the Malaysian government’s allegations of a syndicate, he said this was an internal matter for the country.

“The process of sending workers from here was approved after an agreement between the two governments,” the minister added.

With the amount of investment they are putting in new industries, it is imperative that they will need more manpower, the minister said.

After sending workers to Malaysia from Bangladesh was suspended for a long time, it was reopened late 2016 through a syndicate of 10 designated recruitment agencies, who have so far sent 1.6 lakh workers in a government-to-government plus (G2G) process.

Joint secretary general at Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman demanded that the time frame for legalizing paperwork of illegal Bangladeshi workers be extended.

“The current agreement has been ratified by Parliaments of both of the countries,” he said.

“We can assume that the number of workers sent will be lower now, but it won’t be cancelled altogether.”

Noman added that the new government may take new initiatives, but that will be subject to approval by the joint working technical committee.