Malaysia recruitment: All legal agents can now send workers

All authorised recruiting agencies will get opportunities to send workers to Malaysia, said Expatriates' Welfare Minister Imran Ahmad.

The minister has issued a letter in response to one from Malaysia's human resources minister.

On January 14, the Malaysian minister issued the letter that stressed on the involvement of 25 "main" Bangladeshi recruiting agencies, each with 10 "associate" agencies under it.

As the issue of involvement of "selected" agencies is already in the media of both countries, various recruiting agencies in Bangladesh have termed it "syndication" and demanded an end to this, citing that a similar system had led to the labour market closure in Malaysia.

In his letter on Tuesday, Imran said Bangladesh is always in favour of transparent, fair and safe migration, as per relevant charters of International Labour Organisation and the country's Competition Act 2012, by keeping the opportunities open to all the valid licensed recruiting agencies as mentioned in the MoU signed on December 19 last year.

According to the MoU, Malaysia shall select Bangladeshi recruiting agencies through the online system from the list provided by the Bangladesh government, he said.

In September 2018, the Southeast Asian country suspended recruitment of Bangladeshi workers on allegation of forced labour, high migration cost and syndication.