Human Resources Minister M Kula Segaran today indicated that Malaysia is aiming to reach a "zero-cost recruitment" agreement for migrant workers from Bangladesh as part of efforts to avoid risking US trade sanctions.

Kula said terms of the new agreement - in the final stages of bilateral discussions with Bangladesh - "will be similar" to an agreement reached with Nepal on recruitment of its citizens here, reports Malaysian online news portal, Malaysiakini. 

"When we signed a memorandum of understanding with Nepal, we said that one of the conditions is that when their workers came here, there should be no payment involved. Zero cost for the workers.

"So that means plane tickets and all other expenses have to be borne by the employers," Kula said during a press conference after attending the ministry's weekly "meet the people" day on Tuesday. 

"Why are we saying this? Because the US State Department has placed Malaysia on the Tier 2 watch list, again, in its latest Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report last year.

"If you're on the Tier 2 watch list consistently for 3 years...there will be sanctions if we go on after that," he explained.

Bangladesh Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad on Sunday said the  government does not want to send workers to Malaysia before a low-cost and transparent system of recruitment comes into place.

Kula, however, today reminded that Malaysia was the first to impose a recruitment moratorium on Sept 1, 2018 through suspension of the Foreign Worker Application System for Bangladeshi workers, which only allowed the recruitment process to be carried out by 10 selected agencies.

"There are very few matters left to be resolved. Only one or two matters out of 10 or 12 matters," said Kula who declined to reveal details of Malaysia's request to Bangladesh.

"Once it is resolved, we will open the sector. The government of Malaysia is ready and willing to do that.

"We brought the moratorium so we have to lift it," he stressed, adding that the Bangladesh government has also been working to improve its own mechanisms to prevent unscrupulous recruitment practices.

Quizzed on apparent delays in signing the new agreement, Kula today said: "Delay in the sense that we wanted certain things to be done."

"I am not able to tell the press what these things were, but we wanted them to comply with it, and they did so it's alright.

"The working group team will go to Bangladesh very soon and I hope we can solve this problem as quickly as possible," he said.

Kula had previously indicated that the new recruitment terms would be finalised by the end of last year.

Malaysiakini previously reported that the 4th Malaysia-Bangladesh Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting scheduled to be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, last Nov 24 and Nov 25, had been postponed.

Prior to that, the 3rd JWG meeting took place in Putrajaya on Nov 6 and it was agreed by both parties that matters discussed would be the source of guidance for officials from Malaysia and Bangladesh to finalise draft protocols to amend an existing agreement signed in 2016.

The previous system saw Bangladeshi workers apparently having to fork out up to RM20,000 in processing fee per person to agents to facilitate work permit approvals and other arrangements to work in Malaysia.

Earlier, Kula said the Human Resource Ministry's weekly open day has assisted over 2,000 people last year through direct engagements with him and other department heads.

He said the problems solved range from unpaid wages, follow-up to Labour Court decisions, legal consultation, insurance claims and other matters.