Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s first overseas trip to Kuala Lumpur is likely to help lift the moratorium on the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia.
This issue topped the agenda during his talks with his Malaysian counterpart, Anwar Ibrahim, on Tuesday as Tarique Rahman also sought greater and more effective cooperation in addressing other related issues involving undocumented Bangladeshi migrants and detained nationals in Malaysia.
Since the deployment of Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia has long been stalled due to syndication in the recruitment process, both countries agreed that future hiring should be transparent, affordable, and free from excessive intermediary involvement in order to reduce migration costs and ensure fair access to employment opportunities.
Notably, a 100-agency syndicate allegedly fleeced aspiring migrant workers of huge sums of money but failed to send around 18,000 workers to Malaysia before the deadline in May 2024. This sparked a major controversy at the time, with allegations that recruiting agencies from both countries were involved with the connivance of a politically influential group.
This is why restricting access to the Malaysian labour market to a limited number of Bangladeshi recruiting agencies led to inflated migration costs and an impasse in the entire recruitment process. As a result, many workers were unable to enter Malaysia at the last moment even after their necessary documents had been finalised. Moreover, many returned home unpaid or endured poor living conditions despite paying hefty recruitment fees.
However, this issue was also discussed during the recent visit to Malaysia by Bangladesh's Minister for Labour and Employment and Expatriates' Welfare, Ariful Haque Chowdhury and the Prime Minister's Adviser, Mahdi Amin. Malaysia currently hosts nearly one million Bangladeshi workers.
In this connection, Malaysia plans to introduce a technology-driven, AI-based recruitment system applicable to all source countries. The initiative aims to minimise intermediaries, reduce migration costs, and ensure that employers bear the full cost of recruitment, in line with International Labour Organization (ILO) guidelines, ultimately resulting in zero migration costs for workers.
Apart from labour migration, the two prime ministers agreed to strengthen cooperation in trade, investment, manpower, technology, education and regional connectivity. Other topics discussed during the talks included collaboration in ICT, energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, education, skills development, halal industries, agro-processing, defence, the digital economy and semiconductor manufacturing. A 33-point joint statement covering nine broad areas of cooperation was issued after the talks.
On the trade front, both countries agreed to begin negotiations on a proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA), exchanging the Terms of Reference to launch formal talks. They welcomed growing bilateral trade and expressed optimism that the FTA would further boost market access and investment flows.
The Rohingya crisis also came up for discussion, and both countries agreed to strengthen cooperation through ASEAN mechanisms to find a lasting solution for the approximately 1.3 million Rohingya refugees stranded in Bangladesh, with the engagement of Myanmar’s authorities.
Following Tarique Rahman’s visit to Malaysia, it is hoped that the labour migration issue will be resolved through high-level intervention from both countries.
