‘Syndicate responsible for Malaysia's ban on recruitment from Bangladesh now controlling airfare’

A syndicate responsible for Malaysia's ban on migrant worker recruitment from Bangladesh over corruption and irregularities is now controlling airfares to the Middle East, said manpower exporters at a meeting.

In the past, the entire process of sending manpower to Malaysia was in the hands of only 10 companies, FBCCI standing committee Chairman Dr Mohammed Faruque complained.

"Their corruption and irregularities made the Malaysian government stop taking workers from Bangladesh at one stage. Now the same clique is maneuvering to send migrant workers to the country through 25 companies," he said.

The manpower exporters made the complaint at the first meeting of the FBCCI's Standing Committee on Manpower and Skill Development today.

Concerned over the manpower export syndicate, they called for government policy support.

Before the Covid epidemic, the average fare of a plane ticket from Bangladesh to the Middle East was Tk 50,000 which now has now doubled to over a lakh.

Migrant workers are suffering due to high ticket prices, so are the manpower exporters. The syndicate is responsible for this price increase, they said.

They said the syndicate wanted to streamline the process of sending workers to Malaysia, just like air tickets in the Middle East. On December 19, a memorandum of understanding was signed at the ministerial level of the two countries to send workers from Bangladesh to Malaysia. Standard Operating Procedures-SOPs are to be formulated soon.

At the meeting, other members of the standing committee also expressed their concerns about the syndicate in the manpower sector.

Citing the examples of Nepal, India, Pakistan, they said, each country is exporting manpower to Malaysia through more than one and a half thousand recruiting agents. Therefore, there is no reason to limit the numbers of agents in Bangladesh.

The manpower exporters demanded the inclusion of a nominated member of the FBCCI in the meeting of the Malaysia-Bangladesh Joint Working Committee to break up the syndicate in this sector. Also discussed were amendments to the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act, raising the incentive rate on remittances from 2 percent to 3 percent.

FBCCI Vice-President and Director-in-Charge of Manpower Standing Committee Md Habib Ullah Dawn recommended bringing the manpower sector under government incentives to deal with the epidemic. He said the manpower sector is contributing 12 percent to the country's GDP.