The Malaysian cabinet yesterday decided to freeze the intake of Bangladeshi workers with immediate effect as the process has caused problems to the country, reports Malaysian news agency Bernama from Putrajaya.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said there were now too many workers and agents from Bangladesh in Malaysia.
He said the presence of such agents who used Malaysians as sub-agents and the huge amount of money involved “are not a healthy sign, it is not good for the country”.
Mohd Radzi told reporters in Putrajaya that Malaysia could obtain workers from 10 other countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Nepal and Laos.
He said the government felt that it would do to rely on these countries for workers.
“For the time being, we won’t be taking in Bangladeshi workers,” he said, adding that the freeze involved fresh applications for workers from that country.
Mohd Radzi said Malaysia had also inked agreements to hire workers from several other countries such as Kazakhstan.
The most popular, he said, were workers from Indonesia, India and the Philippines.
The minister said that Malaysia froze the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers back in 1999 because of various problems.
Besides problems related to the agents, the workers themselves were causing many social woes, he said.
He said Malaysia was currently hosting about 200,000 Bangladeshi workers and 100,000 more were expected to arrive in the country as their intake had been approved earlier.
Categories: Bangla, Bangladesh, Bangladesh Economy, Bangladesh News, Daily Bangladesh News, Economy, News
