It has been a few months since a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Bangladesh and Malaysia on the employment of Bangladeshi workers, marking the end of a suspension on their entry to the Malaysian labour market which had been in force since 2018. The agreement came as a welcome relief as it created an opportunity for the employment of hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi workers for the next five years. However, with little sign of progress in the movement of labour, the initial upbeat cadence has been replaced by anxiety and skepticism.
It appears that despite the government’s declared commitment to fair recruitment practices, the forces that were responsible for undermining earlier efforts in gaining access to this important labour market are again flexing their muscles to further their vested interest. At a time when stakeholders were looking forward to the re-opening of the Malaysian labour market, apprehension about the revival of a cartel of recruiting agencies began to gain ground. The debacle of the G2G-plus arrangement which led to the cessation of workers’ movement to Malaysia, after the fall of the Najib Razak government, was perhaps fresh in their mind.
After the fall of the Najib regime in Kuala Lumpur, the new government imposed a suspension on further labour migration from Bangladesh on grounds of gross irregularities in the recruitment process. It also charged senior government officials for engaging in corrupt practices in this regard. Bangladeshi recruiting agencies have alleged that the same vested quarter, being unable to make any headway at the Bangladesh end, have now managed to establish their hold at the Malaysian end and are exerting pressure on Bangladesh. The recruitment agencies’ stand against the syndication move has garnered the support of not only their Malaysian counterparts but also of others outside the sector. Malaysian authorities also revealed a long arm of the unscrupulous and powerful recruiting agencies, as well as the nature of cross-national collaboration of the crooked.
Needless to say, along with bringing benefits to the migrant workers in the form of reduced migration costs, this will also lead to a reduction in the number of migrants with irregular status in the destination country-a phenomenon intrinsically associated with the high migration cost.
