KL lifts ban

Malaysia is going to recruit Bangladeshis again ending a four-year “unofficial ban” that was lifted yesterday through signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh.
From now on, Bangladeshi workers will be sent to Malaysia under state arrangements putting an end to the brokers' meddling. It will cost job seekers a maximum of Tk 40,000 each to get a job there.
Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, expatriates' welfare and overseas employment minister of Bangladesh, and S Subramaniam, human resources minister of Malaysia, signed the MoU.
The deal was inked in the Putrajaya International Convention Centre in Malaysia, Md Nurul Islam, joint secretary of the expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry, told The Daily Star.
The countries also signed two more MoUs on human trafficking prevention and inter-state crimes prevention as per the conditions of the Malaysian government, sources at the ministry said.
Bangladesh Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir and Malaysian Home Minister Hishammuddin bin Tun Hussein signed the MoUs on behalf of their respective governments.
The Malaysian government unofficially stopped hiring Bangladeshi workers from 2009 following allegations of corruptions and irregularities in the recruitment process.
In September this year, the Bangladesh government held detailed talks with the Malaysian human resource minister in Dhaka so that they could resume recruitment under state arrangements.
Though no official date for the start of recruitment of Bangladeshi workers has been fixed, the expatriates' welfare ministry officials hope that the first batch of workers could be sent out as early as January next year.
Initially, the workers would be sent to Malaysia under the tree plantation category, they added.
The Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), Dhaka's regulatory authority for overseas labour affairs, would manage the entire recruitment process aimed at checking malpractices rampant in the sector.
The BMET had already formed seven cells to facilitate selection of workers, their training, collecting visas, ticketing, etc, said Md Salim Reza, additional director general of the bureau, yesterday.
The workers would be selected maintaining district quotas based on the requirements of the recruiters, he added.
The workers interested to go to Malaysia would have to register their names through online, and complete other processes required to be selected for the recruitment after the announcement.
“After completing the online registration process, the workers will be called up in the 13 BMET Technical Training Centres set up across the country for an inspection on their applications,” said Salim Reza.
Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain would brief the media about the MoU at a press conference on Sunday, sources at the ministry added.