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Pro-syndicate meeting turns anti-syndicate assembly on Malaysian labour market

Special Correspondent
25 May 2022 11:55:53 | Update: 25 May 2022 20:06:15
Pro-syndicate meeting turns anti-syndicate assembly on Malaysian labour market
Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Anisul Islam Mahmud speaks at a discussion organised by a group of pro-syndicate members to capture the huge Malaysian labour market in Dhaka on Wednesday

At a discussion organised by a group of pro-syndicate members to capture the huge Malaysian labour market, discussants voiced their strong resistance against such a syndication move, frustrating the organisers and mastermind behind the ill motive.

Most of the panellists and recruiters at the open meeting at a local hotel in the capital on Tuesday expressed their support for an open market formula for sending labours from Bangladesh to Malaysia. They said if only 25 recruiters are allowed to send labours the entire process would face bottlenecks and escalate costs for to be migrants.

Anisul Islam Mahmud, the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment, was the chief guest at the meeting. Anisul voiced his support for open market competition among valid recruiters for manpower export to Malaysia, and opposed the syndication move for the sake of the potential labour, economy, and depleting forex reserve.

He made the call while addressing the views-exchange meeting – “Ways to increasing foreign employment and opening the closed labour market," organised by BAIRA United Democratic Alliance, at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka on Tuesday. The organisers of the meeting are blamed for plotting a syndication conspiracy over grabbing the Malaysian labour market comprising of only 25 recruiters.

“What I want to say is that the market needs to open. Now the question is will it be through a selected number of recruiting agencies or through open competition. One speaker after another here, if you take the record, spoke against the syndication. Not about what is going to happen in future, but about the past syndicate. And you have personally accused some individuals of this syndication,” said Anisul Islam Mahmud.

 “What I want to say today is what is being asked by Malaysia, why have they gone for this limited number of recruiting agencies? Our honourable minister, till now, has been opposing it. And I support him,” he asserted.

Anisul said in Malaysia’s rubber plantations, their harvests are getting spoiled. Oil, which is their main earning, palm oil, that palm oil is getting spoiled for a lack of workers.

Malaysia needs workers in every sector. And as per my estimate, we can export a handful of manpower to Malaysia.

Calling upon for united platform among manpower recruiters, Anisul said recruiters will become weaker if division existed.

He urged all quarters concerned to look into the faulty system. Mahathir Mohammad had put an end to syndication to stop irregularity in the process, he added.

“Why did he (Mahtir Mohammad ) stop it. It was because of the corruption that took place then. And we don’t want the same corruption to happen again whether it is from the Bangladesh side, or Malaysian side,” Anisul asserted again.

“If they (Malaysia) want to enforce a corrupt system, we will stand against this. Let’s not allow this to happen. Let us find out that what we need today is to understand that Malaysia will look after its own interests and they have their mechanism. I need to look into my interest.”

He said there’s no reason to ruin the Malaysian labour market by dividing among recruiters.

Reiterating transparency and fairness, Anisul said the country must focus on four things regarding sending our people abroad. They are low cost, safe migration, fair wages and the environment for migrants.

Former BAIRA leaders Mohammad Shafiqul Alam, Shahadat Hossain, Mansur Alam, Banazir Ahmad, and Ruhul Amin spoke on the occasion, among others.

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