Although Malaysia has postponed the quota application and approval for foreign workers, this move will not affect the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers in progress as the country has already approved more than three lakh quotas for Bangladeshi workers.

To fill up this quota, Bangladesh will need one more year. Till then, Bangladeshi workers can go to Malaysia regularly. Recruiting agencies, the Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry and Malaysian diplomatic sources confirmed the matter. 

In his announcement, V Sivakumar said, “We have approved a total of 995,396 employment quotas for foreign workers from various sectors including construction, service, production, agriculture, excavating, mining and tree plantation as of March 14.”

Of these, Bangladesh has more than 3.5 lakh employment quotas. The Malaysian minister in his speech said all workers will have to bring in Malaysia within a fixed time under specific quotas. The postponement will be reviewed after entering all approved foreign workers by the recruiters.

Bangladeshi manpower exporters said there will be no problem for Bangladeshi workers for the next year due to the approval of the quota application.

Dr Ahmed Munirus Saleheen, Senior Secretary to the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment said those who have already filled up the database for going to Malaysia will not face any difficulties to fly the country.

Meanwhile, a Joint Working Group meeting between Bangladesh and Malaysia was held in Dhaka on Monday. After the meeting, Dr Ahmed Munirus Saleheen said, “We have integrated our online system with Malaysia. We hope this system will be implemented by April 15 next. From now on, manpower recruitment and clearance will be coordinated with the database. By this system, manpower recruitment from Bangladesh to Malaysia will be crystal clear.”

He also said, “We couldn’t send workers to Malaysia as per huge order. There are some problems. We have asked Malaysia to launch additional centres for visa processing. We have also asked them to resolve this problem as soon as possible.”

About the low-cost to send workers to Malaysia, the senior secretary said they have discussed the matter with Malaysian authorities to monitor all sides of costing. Recruiters have to bear the maximum cost and fees of the recruitment. But maximum cases, recruiters put these costs on the workers. However, Malaysian officials said they will address these issues very soon, he added.

@ The article was published on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on March 21, 2023 and has been rewritten in English by Golam Rosul.