Expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment adviser Asif Nazrul said that the Malaysian government would issue multiple-entry visas for the Bangladeshi expatriates from now on.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday night Asif Nazrul said that the Malaysian authorities officially confirmed them about the move.
Earlier, Malaysia granted Bangladeshi migrant workers only single-entry visas which did not allow them to re-enter Malaysia once they left, even if they had visa validity.
With multiple entry visas, expatriates will be able to re-enter Malaysia after leaving the country, if they have visa validity.
Malaysia hires migrant workers from 15 countries and except Bangladesh, it granted multiple-entry visa the expatriates from all the other countries.
‘We have visited Malaysia in May last. At that time we met with the Malaysian home minister. We informed him that Bangladeshi workers get single-entry visas only, while expatriates from other countries get multiple-entry visas. He was astonished and asked about the matter to the officials concerned who confirmed it. He then directed them to resolve the issue,’ the adviser’s Facebook post read.
The Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur also announced the development in a Facebook post, stating that the Malaysian Immigration Department has issued a notification to relevant departments regarding the change.
Asif Nazrul, who is also the law adviser, said on the post that a Bangladeshi delegation was now visiting Malaysia and another delegation would visit the country next month.
‘I hope that we would soon be able to give some more good news in this regard,’ he added.
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 that about 13 lakh Bangladeshi workers went to Malaysia from 2004 to May 2024. Of them, the largest number of workers, more than 3.5 lakh, went in a single year in 2023.
In the first two years—2007 and 2008—before the labour market was closed first time, about 4,00,000 workers went to the country.