Malaysia, a key destination for Bangladeshi workers in Southeast Asia, will reopen its door to Bangladeshi labour for the third time.
After a year of closure, Malaysian authorities agreed to reopen its labour market to Bangladesh, with 7,926 workers from the country set to join the first phase of the new spell of migration in the coming months.
The development resulted from bilateral meetings between Bangladesh authorities and Malaysia鈥檚 minister of human resources and minister of home affairs in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
鈥楳alaysia has decided in principle to recruit a large number of Bangladeshi workers in the days to come,鈥� said youth and sports adviser Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain on Friday.
Asif in a post on his verified Facebook account further said Malaysia has also assured Bangladesh of ensuring proper wages, security, and overall welfare for the workers who will go to that country.
Earlier on Thursday, expatriates welfare and overseas employment adviser Asif Nazrul said Malaysia is聽 set to recruit up to 1,50,000 foreign workers in the coming months and Bangladesh will receive the highest priority in the recruitment.
He revealed the information in a video message on his verified Facebook account following the bilateral meetings with the Malaysian authorities.
Asif Nazrul reminded that Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, during a visit to Bangladesh in the past year, had promised to allow those workers, who could not enter Malaysia that year, to get to that country this year.
Based on that decision, many discussions have taken place and Malaysia has finalised a list of 7,926 Bangladeshi workers for the first batch, who will soon get the opportunity to work in Malaysia, he said.
He also said that Malaysia has requested that all recruiting agents in Bangladesh should be allowed to send workers while Bangladesh has requested the regularisation of those Bangladeshi workers who have become irregular in Malaysia.
Asif further said they also discussed other issues, such as recruiting security personnel, caregivers, and nurses from Bangladesh.
Over the past 16 years, Malaysia鈥檚 labour market was shut down thrice for Bangladeshis.
Every time the issue of contention emerged to be the involvement of syndicates in sending workers to that country. Various allegations of irregularities, corruption, and bribery surfaced against the syndicates.
The Malaysian labour market was first shut down for Bangladeshis in 2009 and it was reopened towards the end of 2016.
The labour market was closed down again in September 2018 on the grounds of corruption and irregularities and it was reopened once again in 2022.
The third time was in March, 2024 when Malaysia again announced that they would not take any more workers for the time being. Those who had the approval and visas would have to enter that country by May 31, 2024, Malaysia further decided.
Some 8,98,970 Bangladeshis are currently working in Malaysia, according to official estimates. This is the highest number of foreign workers in the Southeast Asian country after Indonesians and Nepalese.
Malaysia is the fourth-highest remittance-sending country to Bangladesh.
Ministry officials said about 13 lakh Bangladeshi workers went to Malaysia from 2004 to May 2024. Of them, the largest proportion of workers went in a single year was in 2023 鈥� more than 3.5 lakh.
In the first two years 鈥� 2007 and 2008 鈥� before the labour market was closed first time, about 4,00,000 workers went to the country.
Before its labour market was closed for the second time, some 3,00,000 workers migrated to Malaysia in the last two years 鈥� 2017 and 2018 鈥� while about 5,00,000 workers went to the country from August 2022 to May 2024.
