Bangladesh News

In an apparent move to lift an earlier ban, Malaysia has started issuing calling visas for Bangladeshi workers, clearing the way for some 22,000 Bangladeshi workers who had received approval for jobs in that country.

“Our agencies received about 800 calling visas in three days. We hope to get the visas for the rest of the workers with approval for jobs in Malaysia,” Ali Haider Chowdhury, secretary general of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) said yesterday.

Agencies will soon start sending workers to Malaysia, he said.

Calling visa is the final document for entry into that country.

On October 4, Malaysian authorities declared a temporary ban on hiring manpower from Bangladesh alleging that none of the 21,988 Bangladeshi workers who received jobs approvals in Malaysia entered the country although migration was scheduled to begin in August.

Tension gripped the agencies as well as the aspirant migrant workers who submitted passports and a certain amount of money following the ban.

Malaysian Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad had also threatened the outsourcing companies and employers of stopping approvals of their job demand letters if they fail to hire the approved workers from Bangladesh by October 20.

Baira was held responsible for failing to manage the migration process.

Baira President MAH Salim, however, said Malaysian authorities had given about 22,000 approvals of job demand letters to the Malaysian companies who sent only 1,000 approvals to Bangladesh for processing.

Baira then sent bio-data and biometric features to Malaysia, but no calling visas were issued until October 4 that led to delay in sending workers, he said.

Malaysia installed a computer network linking its home ministry with the Kuala Lumpur Airport, Baira offices in the Malaysian capital and Dhaka, and the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) in Dhaka to ensure fast-track and fraud-resistant recruitment procedure, Baira sources said.

Under this system, recruitment approvals allowed to Malaysian employers would be transmitted online when authorised Baira members will submit the workers’ bio-data and biometric features at their Dhaka office for issuance of calling visas.

No stamping of visa is required and the workers would be allowed entry through the Kuala Lumpur Airport only upon checking the data in the computer, said a Baira member.

The provision of submitting the workers’ biometric features along with bio-data that the Malaysian authorities introduced later also delayed entries of bio-data, an executive member of Baira said.

Involvement of the Bangladesh mission in Kuala Lumpur was also not in the original design, but later the Malaysian government made it mandatory for the mission to attest the recruitment approvals before sending those to Bangladesh.

This led to the inordinate delay as the Bangladesh mission in Kuala Lumpur is not equipped well enough to make inquiries of 20-30 job approvals placed every day against factories located hundreds of kilometres away from the Malaysian capital, Baira sources said.

The need for attestation by the Bangladesh mission is an unnecessary exercise, especially when the Malaysian home ministry has categorically taken the responsibility of issuing approvals only to genuine employers, they said.