Diplomatic Correspondent

Malaysia has expressed firm commitment to support the interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus and its crucial reform agenda.

The development follows two separate meetings held between Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Adviser Asif Nazrul, Malaysian Home and Human Resources Minsters YB Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution bin Ismail and YB Steven Sim Chee Keong.   

Lutfey Siddiqi, special envoy of the Chief Adviser on International Affairs, accompanied the adviser in the meetings in Kuala Lumpur, according to a message received here.

While recognising the important role played by the Bangladeshi migrants in the development of Malaysia, the country expressed strong desire to reset the labour relations with Bangladesh and diversify the bilateral relations by exploring potentials for collaboration in other areas, such as, trade, investment as development partners.

Referring to the commitment of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to address the issue of 17,000 plus stranded Bangladeshi workers, who despite fulfilling all condition and paying full migration cost were not able to enter Malaysia within the deadline of 31 May 2024, Adviser Asif requested the Malaysian side to consider their recruitment in Malaysia at the earliest opportunity.

His Malaysian counterpart YB Steven Sim said his country has decided to process soon the recruitment of 7,964 stranded workers in the first batch and as proposed by Bangladesh, the recruitment process of those workers will be handled by Bangladesh Overseas Employment Services Limited (BOESL).

The Malaysian side referred to the ongoing policy reforms in its labour sector including its multi-tier levy system and quota for foreign workers in its key sectors. They also mentioned that Bangladesh will get top priority in the recruitment of foreign workers in the upcoming calling.

Both sides shared the need for addressing the challenges in the recruitment system, with a view to ensuring a fair, ethical, and transparent migration process and reducing the migration cost.

The Malaysian government informed that they have decided to introduce a common system for recruitment of migrant workers which they will apply to all source countries.

Referring to the existing recruitment system that excludes a large number of recruiting agencies and allows monopoly in the recruitment process, the Advisor of Bangladesh requested the Malaysian side to consider opening the market to all registered recruiting agencies of Bangladesh.

Malaysia assured of ensuring access to all qualified and compliant recruiting agencies. Both the countries also proposed to introduce a performance review mechanism and arrange more frequent meetings between the countries at the technical level to address complaints in the recruitment process, which Bangladesh welcomed.

Adviser Asif drew the attention of his counterpart to the visa related problems faced by Bangladeshi workers, requesting to consider issuing multiple entry visas to the Bangladeshi workers, consistent with the practice applicable to other source countries.

The Malaysian government informed that they are currently working on a proposal to revisit this provision of single-entry visa for Bangladeshi workers. Hopefully very soon the Bangladeshi workers will be granted multiple entry visas.

The adviser also raised the issue of regularising the irregular workers of Bangladesh, many of whom lost their regular status due to reasons beyond their control.

In reply, the Malaysian side informed that they usually introduce a recalibration process which offers the irregular workers to regularize their status upon payment of a fee; however, it is done on a compassionate basis. They also stressed the importance of educating the migrants to comply with the immigration law. 

Asif requested Malaysia to consider recruiting more Bangladeshi workers in the skilled or professional categories and expressed Bangladesh’s readiness to provide doctors, nurses, security guards etc.

The Malaysian ministers took positive note of the proposal, especially for recruitment of nurses and agreed to work at the technical level to explore opportunities for migration in those sectors. 

Both sides also discussed potentials for economic cooperation through increased trade and investment, with a view to creating more jobs for the workers.