The High Court (HC) has ordered a probe to be carried out against the irregularities in the recruiting agency syndicates responsible for sending workers to Malaysia.
It has asked the nine-member probe committee formed by the HC to lodge the report by Jul 18, declining a plea to remove an Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) official from the committee.
The bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal gave the order on Wednesday (Jun 26) after a writ hearing in the matter.
“The Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment formed a committee at the HC’s order to probe the irregularities in the syndicate,” Barrister Rashna Imam who moved for the petitioners told the media.
She added that the court has declined a plea to remove the ACC official from the committee and lodge the probe report with the court.
The HC ordered the committee to be formed in October 2018 to investigate the 10 recruiting agencies that send workers to Malaysia.
Moreover, it had also issued a rule asking why the government’s failure to control and take steps against those 10 agencies should not be declared illegal and why the agencies shouldn’t be ordered to give compensation.
A total of 20 people, including the expatriates’ welfare, foreign and commerce secretaries were made respondents to the rule.
A writ was lodged with the HC challenging the legality of sending workers through those 10 agencies only which is in violation of the agreement signed between Malaysia and Bangladesh.
Barrister Imam said that Malaysia stopped accepting workers in 2009 but the two countries inked an agreement to send workers again in 2012 which continued for two-and-half years.
She added that a large number of people went to Malaysia illegally in the sea route and despite finding mass graves in Thailand and Malaysia in 2015, the country expressed interest to hire workers from Bangladesh on a non-government basis.
“In 2016 Bangladesh and Malaysia signed the G2G plus agreement but within 12 hours Malaysia said that it will no longer be hiring workers,” Imam said.
She added that labour recruitment resumed in 2017 after a delegation led by a Malaysian lawmaker visited Bangladesh in November of 2016.
The recruitments under the G2G plus agreement is completely processed online. Malaysian company Synerflux worked with a syndicate comprised of 10 agencies in Bangladesh.
Due to the syndicate, the other recruiting agencies in the country were being deprived of sending workers and the syndicate agencies were charging more money.
The 10 agencies are: Career Overseas, HSMT Human Resource, Sanjari International, Rabbi International, Passage Associates, Catharsis International, Unique Eastern Private Limited, Ameen Tours and Travels, Prantik Travels and Tourism and Al Islam Overseas.
