Malaysia door opens again for workers

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Malaysia recently resumed issuing job approvals to Bangladeshi jobseekers — bringing an end to a temporary ban the South-East Asian country had imposed in October last year on the hiring of workers from Bangladesh.

Authorities say the withdrawal of the ban was made possible due to the efforts of both the sides — Malaysia and Bangladesh.

Amid numerous reports of unemployment, underpayment and various other contract violations by the employers, the two sides have also been working to resolve the workplace issues faced by the Bangladeshi workers who had already been working in Malaysia.

Abdul Matin Chowdhury, the expatriates welfare and overseas employment secretary, told The Daily Star on May 20, “Malaysia has been issuing fresh job approvals regularly for about a month now. The country is now more sincere in addressing foreign workers’ issues. We also took a few measures in this regard.”

Even though 100 percent of the issues could not be claimed to be solved, the magnitude of the problems has been reduced, he observed.

“Our high commission in Kuala Lumpur has been asked to attest job demand letters only after inspecting the factories. On the other hand, to avert further untoward incidents, we asked the recruiting agencies to visit the factories before sending workers there,” Chowdhury said.

Ever since Malaysia’s latest initiative of recruiting Bangladeshis started in August 2006, numerous reports surfaced about worker abuse, non-payment of wages and violations of contractual agreements by employers in the country. A number of Bangladeshi workers even faced unemployment after arriving in the country as they were recruited for firms that existed only on paper.

Several hundred Bangladeshi workers were also stranded in Kuala Lumpur airport, drawing the attention of national and international media. Till today, around 400 workers are still staying in a shelter set up by the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur.

Many of the abused workers staged demonstrations in front of the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur seeking repatriation and compensation.

After an estimated 2,000 of the mistreated workers made it back home, some received compensation while a large section of them are still being subjected to harassment

It is alleged that the recruiting agencies that sent the returnee workers to Malaysia have been ignoring instructions of the government to be present at hearings of complaints filed by the returnee workers with Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET).

International Migrants Alliance (IMA) Research Foundation in a report said on behalf of 442 cheated workers, the IMA has so far filed 42 complaints against 31 recruiting agencies with the BMET. Till date, the BMET succeeded to make the agencies pay compensation to 258 workers and 23 more complaints are still pending.

Tenaganita, a Malaysia-based migrants rights organisation, in an investigation report said it was the “outsourcing system” that was responsible for the exploitation of the Bangladeshis. The organisation demanded cancellation of the system to put an end to worker exploitation.

Under the system, outsourcing firms hire workers and deliver them to principal companies. But, Tenaganita, in its report alleged that these outsourcing firms most of the time hire excessive workers against a particular number of order for workers placed by the principal companies, leading to unemployment of the additional workers.

Asked to comment on whether Bangladesh has approached Malaysian authorities about re-evaluating the effectiveness of the outsourcing system, expatriates’ welfare secretary Chowdhury said it is still a matter of debate. “Some say the outsourcing is even better.”

Ghulam Mustafa, president of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira), said Malaysia’s labour market has a huge potential for Bangladesh as Malaysian employers prefer Bangladeshi workers for their hard work and their willingness to work longer hours.

“The government therefore should’ve been extra careful about handling the issues before it even started sending the workers. The problems arose as the high commission in Kuala Lumpur attested job demand letters without inspecting the factories,” he added.

Now that Malaysia started issuing new job approvals again, the high commission should be very cautious. “I also asked recruiting agencies to visit the factories before sending workers because they are also equally responsible for protecting workers’ interests.”

According to BMET, around 3.36 lakh workers were issued emigration clearance so far while about 3 lakh already left for Malaysia.

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