Don’t pay recruiters to go to Malaysia now: BMET

The Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training has requested aspirant migrants not to pay money to any individual or recruitment agency for going to Malaysia, before an official announcement is made in this regard.

In a notice on Thursday, the agency said as per the agreement between Malaysia and Bangladesh, hiring authorities will pay migrants bound for that country all related costs, including for insurance, accommodation, food, and air tickets.

The bureau – operating under Bangladesh’s Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry – pointed out that no worker will be able go to Malaysia without registering in the BMET database.

The office of the Malaysian human resources minister, in a media statement on December 17, said a cabinet meeting on the day had agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Bangladeshi authorities for resuming workers’ recruitment.

They decided to recruit workers in all sectors, including in plantations, agriculture, manufacturing, services, mining and quarrying, construction, and domestic work.

The statement added that the cabinet meeting also agreed to defer the implementation of the multi-tier levy system for employing foreign workers from January 1 next year to July 1 so as not to burden employers.

In October this year, the Malaysian authorities said they would hire overseas workers only for plantations. Malaysia is the second-highest palm oil producer in the world. It employs plantation workers for palm oil production.

Over 10.5 lakh Bangladeshi workers have so far migrated to Malaysia. Besides, more than 20,000 workers who came to Bangladesh from Malaysia on vacation before the coronavirus pandemic are now stranded here.

The BMET data shows that despite the recruitment suspension, 7.89 percent of Bangladeshi migrants work in Malaysia. According to the latest Bangladesh Bank data, the inflow of remittance from Malaysia dropped to $290.86 million in the July-September period of 2021 against the inflow of $607.24 million in the corresponding period in 2020.