Malaysian Human Resources Minister M KulasegaranMalaysian Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran Thursday reportedly said his country would suspend the existing system to recruit Bangladeshi workers and go back to old system under which application process would be managed by the government.
Malaysian newspaper ‘The Star’ published a news on Friday titled ‘Recruitment system halted as firms linked to ring’ in which it quoted the minister M Kulasegaran who termed the entire process ‘a total mess’.
However, the Southeast Asian country is yet to inform Bangladesh officially, say Bangladesh embassy sources.
Dhaka and Kuala Lumpur signed a g-to-g agreement in 2012 to send workers there under only government arrangement, but it was later modified on 18 October 2016 to have a g-t-g plus system in which 10 recruiting agencies in Bangladesh incorporated in the process.
“This suspension will last until a full investigation has been completed into allegations that a syndicate was operating it as a human trafficking scheme to exploit these workers”, reported The Star quoting the minister.
“The previous administration managed the whole recruitment process like a business aimed at benefiting certain individuals,” Kulasegaran alleged in the report.
The minister said the migrant workers paying exorbitant amounts of money to several middlemen to both Bangladesh and Malaysia.
“We are investigating this, and are in the process of fixing the problem.”
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Until then, Malaysia would go back to the old system so that the application process could be managed by the government, the minister added.
When contacted, Labour Counsellor in Bangladesh mission in Malaysia Md Sayedul Islam told Bangla Tribune over phone, “Bangladesh is yet to be officially informed about suspension of recruiting from Malaysia as reported in media.
“We have seen the news but we are not officially informed.”
The mission is in close contact with the Malaysian authorities to know the details, he said adding, “We can give more information when we have their official version.”
Sayedul said, no decision can be taken unilaterally and if there is a problem, both the governments need to sit and find a solution.
About the inflow of manpower to Malaysia, he said, so far, I know there is no block in the flow.
Another official in the mission seeking anonymity said, “New government has taken over in Malaysia recently. It is very obvious that they would analyse and understand the existing system and give it a shape of their own.”
The current Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammad, is a good friend of Bangladesh and during his earlier tenure, Dhaka and Kuala Lumpur relations reached a new high.