Bangladesh recruiters call for lifting conditions on agency selection for Malaysia labour market

Bangladeshi labour exporters have called for the removal of conditions set for sending workers to Malaysia, describing them as “unreasonable and deliberately imposed”.

On Thursday afternoon, a group of exporters submitted a memorandum to Expatriate Welfare Advisor Asif Nazrul, criticising the rules.

Signatories included former president of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) MH Salim, Senior Vice-President Reaz-ul-Islam, Joint Secretaries Fakhrul Islam, Akbar Hossain Monju, executive member Hoque Zahirul Joe, Kamal Uddin, and Secretary for Sports, Entertainment and Culture Rehena Parveen.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment instructed Bangladesh to request Malaysia to list all recruiting agencies capable of meeting the 10 conditions required for sending workers.

Agencies were asked to apply by Nov 7.

The conditions include having an office of 10,000sqft, five years’ experience, having sent 3,000 workers over five years, running business for three years, letters of recommendation from five employers, and owning a training centre.

In their memorandum, the exporters described each condition as “deliberate, conspiratorial, unrealistic and unacceptable”.

They said: “From 1991 to 2016, we sent millions of workers to Malaysia across different sectors without any conditions. Since 2017, illegal syndicates, discrimination, exploitation and massive financial losses have occurred.”

The memorandum added that every recruiting agency in Bangladesh already meets government criteria and licensing requirements, sending workers worldwide without such conditions being imposed by any other country.

Exporters said factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, Malaysian syndicates, the absence of many agencies from Saudi lists, and blocked labour supply to countries including UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq, Libya and Oman have prevented most agencies from sending the desired number of workers over the past five to six years.

They criticised requirements such as operating a 10,000sqft office for three consecutive years and owning a personal training centre, calling them “unrealistic and costly”.

They added that not a single Malaysian C-license holder meets the 10,000sqft office requirement, nor do agencies in Nepal, Pakistan, India, Myanmar, the Philippines or Indonesia.

Until 2016, under an agreement between Bangladesh and Malaysia, 10 designated agencies sent workers.

In 2021, a new agreement increased the number of agencies to 100. Exporters said a syndicate formed among 20–25 agencies still controls the entire worker supply process.

The Anti-Corruption Commission found that the government-set cost for sending a worker to Malaysia was Tk 79,000 taka, but in reality each worker spends an average of Tk 544,000, including Tk 167,500 to syndicate-linked agencies.

Former BAIRA leaders said the new conditions appear to hand Malaysia’s labour market back to syndicates, claiming the rules have little to do with the welfare of migrant workers.

They demanded the withdrawal of these conditions and proposed that government agency BOESL be made the main agent, giving all recruiting agencies the opportunity to send workers.