PETALING JAYA | Ten thousand Bangladeshi workers will arrive in Malaysia in batches beginning this week, according to a spokesman for the human resources ministry.
Khair Razman Mohamed Annuar, the ministry’s deputy secretary-general in charge of operations, told FMT this came under a government-to-government agreement for a one-off labour intake.
He said the 25 Bangladeshi agencies appointed for the recruitment of workers had nothing to do with the scheme.
“This one-off bilateral cooperation involves the recruitment agency under the government of Bangladesh,” he said. “It’s simply to expedite the intake of foreign labour.”
FMT has seen circulars issued by the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) and the Malaysian Palm Oil Association confirming the one-off recruitment.
According to the MEF circular, 4,200 of the 10,000 workers are still available for recruitment. The ministry has allocated 2,100 of the total for MEF members.
Supplementary documents detail the recruitment process involving the labour and immigration departments, the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur and the Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL), a government-owned recruitment agency under the country’s expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry.
In a letter to the high commissioner dated Sept 20, BOESL said the workers would be sent to Malaysia within two weeks.
The Malaysian Cabinet approved the one-off recruitment scheme on Sept 14.
Malaysia and Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding last December after Putrajaya decided to appoint the 25 Bangladeshi recruitment agencies. Under that agreement, Malaysia received its first batch of workers last month.
