Bangladesh and Malaysia on principle agreed to closely work together towards a permanent solution of the protracted problem of irregular migration of people and contain boatpeople crisis.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali and his Malaysian counterpart Dato' Sri Anifah Haji Aman held bilateral talks on the sidelines of the 22nd ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Foreign Ministers' meeting on Wednesday at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Mahmood Ali is on a two-day visit to Kuala Lumpur, where he also met the Foreign Minister of Norway, State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan and India to discuss various bilateral and regional issues, said a press release.
The two Foreign Ministers discussed in details the root cause of the irregular migration of people, the unabated persecution of Rohingya Muslim minority in the Rakhaine state of Myanmar.
Haji Aman expressed satisfaction at the existing friendly bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Malaysia and hoped that the relations would further strengthened in the years to come.
Bangladesh thanked Malaysia for its collaboration towards repatriation of the irregular migrants of Bangladesh.
Malaysian Foreign Minister expressed satisfaction for repatriation of refugees of Bangladeshi nationals rescued from hunger and trauma on its coasts.
The two Foreign Ministers also discussed the status of recruitment of Bangladeshi workers on both G2G and B2B basis and felt the need for taking more positive measures to smoothen the process.
The recruitment of migrants from Bangladesh would be discussed in a forthcoming meeting in Dhaka next week.
A delegation of Malaysian officials is expected to arrive here to sign a deal to recruit 1.5 million workers in the next three years.
The ministry then said 500,000 low-skilled Bangladeshi workers would be recruited this year under the new business-to-business (B2B) recruitment agreement, official sources said.