Malaysia to hire 12,000 more

Malaysia will recruit 12000 more Bangladeshi workers for its plantation sector.

“Our cabinet has also agreed to hire Bangladeshis to work in the construction, manufacturing and service sectors,” said visiting Malaysian Human Resources Minister Richard Riot Anak Jaem yesterday.

He, however, did not mention when the 12000 Bangladeshis would be recruited.

Currently, Malaysia hires Bangladeshi workers only for the plantation sector under the government to government (G2G) process.

The Malaysian minister was speaking to reporters after a meeting with the representatives of expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry at the Secretariat yesterday.

Some 6 lakh Bangladeshi nationals are currently working in several sectors of Malaysia, Expatriates' Welfare Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain told the briefing.

The 12000 Bangladeshis would be selected from around 2 million people who had been registered with the ministry since January last year, he added.

Thousands of Bangladeshis, who had registered, are now waiting to get jobs in Malaysia.

But the Malaysian employers are failing to hire as much workers as expected, Richard admitted.

The Bangladeshis could not be provided with the expected number of jobs mainly because of unwillingness of many of the Malaysian private employers', according to government sources.

In 2009, the Malaysian government had imposed a ban on recruiting workers from Bangladesh, allegedly for widespread corruption by the recruiting agencies here.

Bangladesh resumed sending workers to that country after the ban was lifted in 2012.

At one point, the overseas employment ministry had set a target of sending at least 10,000 workers every year. But it could send only half of the targeted number in the period since April last year.

“After the ban was removed in 2012, Malaysian recruitment committee for Bangladesh initially had approved to hire 6000 workers, but only 4,457 of them could be given jobs. So, we need to review the entire recruitment process,” Richard said.

Khandker Mosharraf Hossain said he was frustrated as the target could not be fulfilled.

But the government would continue sending Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia under the current G2G process as Malaysia had suspended the recruitment process blaming anomalies by the agencies, said the minister.

Yesterday's meeting at the Secretariat, attended by the nine-member Malaysian delegation headed by Richard and Malaysian High Commissioner in Dhaka Norlin Binti Othman, mainly discussed the workers' recruitment issue with the ministry.

The Malaysian delegation is expected to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today after visiting the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training.