Exploitation of Workers: Manpower recruiting syndicates to blame
Malaysian High Commi-ssioner to Bangladesh Haznah Md Hashim has blamed manpower recruiting syndicates in both Bangladesh and Malaysia for the labour exploitation in the Southeast Asian country.
"One of the reasons we are facing these issues is because of the syndicates, which means it operates perhaps here [Bangladesh] and in Malaysia also. It requires cooperation from both countries to tackle the issues," she told reporters after a meeting with Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud at the foreign ministry yesterday.
Hashim made the statement in response to a question about how Malaysia is going to address the problems of an estimated 1-2 lakh Bangladeshi workers who are jobless, unpaid or underpaid, and indebted in Malaysia now.
She said the Malaysian government really appreciates the contribution of the hard-working people of Bangladesh in Malaysia, where about eight lakh Bangladeshis work.
Of them, over four lakh workers went to Malaysia since the end of 2022.
Initially, a syndicate of 25 recruiting agents were selected by Malaysian authorities to conduct the recruitment and later the number was expanded to 100.
However, the migrants said each of them were charged around Tk 5 lakh for recruitment cost, while a significant number of migrants remain jobless or underpaid and indebted.
About this, the Malaysian envoy said the Malaysian government takes this issue very seriously and that it is taking all the measures to address all the problems.
Hasan Mahmud said the meeting was a courtesy call but they discussed the Malaysian labour market, and the importance of Malaysian investment in Bangladesh.
"Malaysia is Bangladesh's eighth largest investor. We discussed that Malaysia could make more investments in the economic zones here."
They also spoke about labour welfare in Malaysia, as well as issues related to bilateral trade, said officials concerned.
The Malaysian envoy said Malaysia is supportive of Bangladesh's bid to become the ASEAN dialogue partner. Malaysia also wants to sell defence equipment to Bangladesh, they added.
Comments