Fears of a syndicate returning to labour migration
The announcement that recruitment of Bangladeshi workers for Malaysia will begin has caused confusion, because there is no specific instruction on the cost of migration. Recruiting agencies and middlemen have already started collecting passports from prospective workers, telling them the cost could be Tk 7 lakh to Tk 7.5 lakh per worker. This has raised fears that the cost for workers going to Malaysia will break all past records.
Experts say a realistic migration cost must be set quickly and the whole payment process moved online. Otherwise agencies can collect whatever they like. The Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment says the cost set earlier was not realistic and a new figure is being considered.
On 15 October the ministry announced that the process of sending workers to Malaysia through approved recruiting agencies would begin. Prospective workers then began preparing to go. On Wednesday came the announcement that medical tests would begin. But with no clear instruction on the total cost per worker, the fees at each stage or the method of payment, the uncertainty remains.
What the agencies say about cost
Manpower businesses say the migration cost set by the government earlier was not realistic. They objected to it in 2022 as well, and this time too they want a cost set in line with reality.
According to them, collecting a demand letter for sending workers to Malaysia used to cost 2,000-3,000 ringgit. It has now risen to 8,000-10,000 ringgit, and some put it at 10,000 to 12,000 ringgit. They believe the cost per worker will rise as a result.
From 2022 to 2024, the government-set migration cost for sending a worker to Malaysia was Tk 78,990. It covered the passport fee, medical test fee, recruiting agency service charge, registration fee, welfare fee and insurance. But the reality was different. Because of syndicates of brokers and agencies at various levels, Bangladeshi workers paid Tk 5-6 lakh at that time. Nepali workers pay Tk 2 lakh to Tk 2.5 lakh, Indonesian workers Tk 1 lakh to Tk 1.5 lakh and Filipino workers Tk 50,000 to Tk 80,000.
The owner of a recruiting agency listed as a sub-agency, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he had already collected more than a thousand passports and was collecting more. He said those interested had been told to keep at least Tk 7 lakh ready, and that the amount could rise further as the final cost has not been set.
According to him, large businesses are spending big sums to obtain demand letters from Malaysian companies, and the middlemen involved also have to be paid. That makes it hard for small agencies to send workers at a lower cost.
Fakhrul Islam, former joint secretary general of the manpower exporters’ association BAIRA, said recruitment through a syndicate would damage the country’s image. He fears the migration cost under the current process could exceed all previous records. He believes a cost of Tk 2.5 lakh to Tk 3 lakh per worker would be realistic.
Workers’ worries
Prospective workers waiting to go to Malaysia also fear higher costs. Almas Ali runs a grocery shop in a village in Sunamganj to support his family. He had waited two and a half years for the Malaysian labour market to reopen. Recently a neighbour promised to send him to Malaysia and asked him to hand over his passport. When he asked about the cost, he was told to keep more than Tk 7 lakh ready.
Munna Mia of Rampura in Dhaka works as a marketing representative at a private company. After seeing the news that recruitment for Malaysia had begun, he contacted a recruiting agency he knew. Munna said he was told the cost would be higher this time and was asked to keep Tk 7 lakh to Tk 7.5 lakh ready for a start.
The government will set a new cost
According to the ministry’s notice of 15 October, the Malaysian authorities agreed to list 338 organisations to send workers to Malaysia: Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL), 25 private processing or service agencies and 312 recruiting agencies.
The listed recruiting agencies can find employers in Malaysia, collect job demand letters, and select and recruit workers themselves. BOESL and the 25 listed processing or service agencies will help with administrative work including calling visas and e-visas. Workers’ BMET clearance will then be arranged under Bangladeshi law.
Each approved recruiting agency can obtain BMET clearance for its selected workers under its own licence, with processing or service agencies issuing the necessary no-objection certificates (NOC).
The notice also said the list of approved medical centres for health tests would be finalised. But it gave no details of the migration cost per worker or of who would be able to go free of cost.
Several ministry officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said work is under way to revise the earlier cost. They said that although the cost had been set at about Tk 79,000, an agency could still make a profit of about Tk 30,000, and even so extra charges on workers could not be stopped. The ministry is considering setting a new migration cost so that agency owners do not take extra money from workers.
Proposal to pay through the OEP system
Migration expert Asif Munier said it is urgent to set a realistic migration cost for workers going to Malaysia quickly. The whole payment should also be made through the Overseas Employment Platform (OEP), he said.
In his view, how much is being charged under each head, including the service charges of main agencies and sub-agencies, must be specified. If needed, an OEP service charge could be set on a trial basis.
He also advised looking into the activities of those collecting passports now. The expert stressed talking to workers who have handed over their passports to verify how much is being demanded and, if necessary, conducting drives through a task force.
Nurul Haque Nur, state minister for expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment, said the cost set earlier was not realistic and nobody followed it. Sending a worker through the state agency BOESL could cost about Tk 155,000 to Tk 160,000, he said. The cost of sending workers through private recruiting agencies will be set after discussion and calculation with those involved.
Costs rose before too
The Malaysian labour market reopened in 2016, eight years after it closed in 2008. Malaysia stopped taking workers from Bangladesh in 2018 over corruption allegations. After a new memorandum of understanding on 18 December 2021, sending workers resumed in 2022. But the market closed again on 1 June 2024.
From 2016 to 2018 workers were recruited through 10 recruiting agencies. The government-set migration cost then was Tk 33,375, but workers were charged Tk 2 lakh to Tk 3.5 lakh.
After the market reopened in 2022, first 25 and later 101 agencies were included in the process. There are allegations that even then, because of syndicates and middlemen, workers’ migration costs reached several lakh taka.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report