Govt to get tough on recruiting agencies

The Ministry of Expat-riates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment is going to issue a final warning to the recruiting agencies to speed up the process for sending Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia.

The warning is likely to come in a meeting to be held today at the Probashi Kalyan Bhaban in the capital.

The agency owners have been asked to join the meeting as they managed to send only 4,659 migrant workers to Malaysia in September and another 573 workers in August.

The ministry is yet to figure out the number of workers sent in October but according to its officials, the ministry has so far approved ‘employment permit’ against demands for around 60,000 workers.

Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad said he will sit with the agency owners to ask them the reasons behind the pace in worker migration.

"I will ask them to clarify the reasons and give them a final warning to speed up the process. Gradually I have to put pressure on them. If they fail to deliver as per the expectations, we may have to start canceling their licenses," he said.

The minister said as per his ministry and Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) are concerned, he finds no acceptable reasons for such slow pace in the recruitment process.

"When agencies get approval, Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur attest those documents swiftly, while the ministry approves those and BMET processes the papers on time. So, there is a problem elsewhere," he said.

Imran Ahmad said about 12,000 to 13,000 papers have been processed so far but migration of workers to Malaysia is much less than that.

"We are doing our part. The rest depends on recruiting agencies," the minister said, adding that agency owners have to find out where the problem is.

Recruiting agencies said they will explain the reasons for the slow pace in the meeting today.

"The good thing is that the ministry is finally going to sit with us. Since the process began, they never felt the need to sit with the agencies. They have signed the agreement accepting all conditions given by Malaysia but are blaming us now for the slow process,"   said Abul Bashar, President of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA).

He said they are always told that limiting the number of agencies for sending workers is a big hurdle in speeding up the process.

The Malaysian government has allowed some 100 Bangladeshi recruiting agencies to send workers, while the Bangladesh government has set Tk 78,990 as the maximum cost for a worker to go to Malaysia.

But several workers, requesting not to be named, said that the recruiting agencies are charging or have charged them Tk 250,000 to Tk 450,000 for sending them to Malaysia.

Asked about the additional cost, the expatriates' welfare and overseas employment minister said in such cases, the workers should file complaints with specific evidence.

"I have heard about such allegations as well. If we get a specific complaint, we will punish the agencies," he said.

Imran Ahmad said they need cooperation from all quarters in this regard.

The BAIRA president, however, directly blamed the ministry for such a situation.

"The ministry didn’t discuss with us before determining the maximum cost of migration. The amount it fixed is completely unrealistic," he said.