Malaysia’s ‘syndication suggestion’

The Malaysian government wants ‘syndication’ in manpower export from Bangladesh, bypassing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the two countries signed last month to ensure open competition and transparency, with lower migration costs.

Malaysian Human Resource Minister M Saravanan, in a letter on January 14, urged his Bangladeshi counterpart Minister for Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Imran Ahmad to initiate the process of sending workers to Malaysia through 25 Bangladesh Recruitment Agencies (BRA).

Manpower exporters said the move is contrary to the spirit of negotiations reached between the two countries on manpower export to Malaysia, resulting in obvious syndication and image crisis for the nation.

 Malaysia’s insistence ‘mysterious’

Despite repeated cautions from the Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, the syndicate comprising of some officials and a few agencies is still active, said M Tipu Sultan, President of the Recruiting Agencies Oikya Parishad.

Parishad leaders said a vested corrupt group in the Malaysian government had favoured syndication in Bangladesh to get equally benefitted.

Recruiting agency owners demanded keeping the labour market open for all valid recruiting agents to ensure fair competition.

A number of recruiting agents said Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia are among other countries that send workers to Malaysia through open competition among their recruiting agencies.

Indonesia has more than 1,000 recruiting agencies and Nepal has 884 for sending manpower to Malaysia. There exists no priority list of recruiting firms for either country. Malaysian insistence for a smaller group of recruiting agencies in Bangladesh is mysterious, only indicating corruption in the entire process to benefit an influential quarter in the HR Ministry of Malaysia, believe experts.

 ‘Upholding the spirit for open competition’

Sending workers through a small number of firms will demean the government efforts and objectives of keeping the migration costs lower. The arrangement to send workers to Malaysia from Bangladesh through only 10 recruiting firms from 2017 to 2018 was a disaster. Any repetition of syndication would be a double whammy for both the Bangladesh government and the economy.

As Bangladesh has nearly 2,000 valid manpower exporters, letting only 25 of them for the business will create only chaos and enhance migration-related costs.

Sources at the Ministry for Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment said they stood firm for open competition and against any sort of syndication in manpower export to Malaysia.

“We responded to the letter of Saravanan upholding the spirit for open competition, as such term is included in the MoU,” a top official at the ministry told The Business Post.

Bangladesh and Malaysia signed the MoU on December 19 last year.

Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad on January 18 responded to the Saravanan letter reiterating open competition from Bangladesh.

“I want to reiterate that, Bangladesh is always in favour of transparent, fair and safe migration, as per relevant charters of International Labour Organisation (ILO), our Competition Act 2012 by keeping the opportunities open to all the valid licensed Bangladeshi Recruiting Agencies (BRA) as mentioned in Chapter C (v) and C(vi) of Appendix B of the MOU,” reads Imran’s letter.

 “According to the provision, the Government of Malaysia shall select BRA automatically through the online system from the list provided by the government of Bangladesh, and Government of Malaysia shall ensure transparency and fairness in the selection and distribution of quota.”

 ‘Break the syndicate’

Manpower experts and rights activists are also against syndication while the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) urged the government not to allow any syndication.

Tasneem Siddiqui, the chair of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit, told The Business Post that the 25 agencies have influenced Malaysia to write for them.

“There is an ‘unholy nexus’ of the agencies for the syndication. The government should find them out and bring them to book,” she said. 

WARBE Development Foundation Chairman Syed Saiful Haque warned that he market might be lost again if the government failed to break the syndicate.

“Migration cost will increase when a competitive market is missing in sending manpower from Bangladesh to Malaysia,” he told The Business Post.

Immediate past president of BAIRA Benjir Ahmed said all the members of BAIRA should have opportunities to send workers. A vested group is plotting to damage the labour market with fake and confusing information.

 “No syndicate should be formed in this regard,” he added.

 Keeping migration cost low

Earlier, the Malaysian government said Bangladeshi workers to be recruited in sectors such as plantations, agriculture, manufacturing, services, mining and quarrying, construction, and domestic work.

Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training officials said over 10.5 lakh Bangladeshi workers are now living in Malaysia.

The data of the Bureau of Statistics show 2,73,201 Bangladeshis were recruited by Malaysian employers in 2007. In September 2018, when Malaysia suspended recruitment, 2,75,927 Bangladeshis had migrated there in the previous nine months.

Resource rich Malaysia is a popular choice among Bangladeshis looking for overseas employment. In 2020, expatriate Bangladeshis remitted $1.74 billion, which was 7.98 per cent of the total remittance received that year, according to BMET. Last year, even during the raging pandemic, Bangladeshis sent home $1.09 billion from Malaysia.

Rising migration cost will leave migrant workers vulnerable to exploitation and could negatively affect the remittance flow.

Former Secretary General of BAIRA and Sadia International’s proprietor Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman told The Business Post that migration cost increased several times for syndication.

“A competitive market always benefits workers, monopoly benefits agents absolutely,” he said, asking: “If other countries can keep their recruiting open for all, why not Bangladesh?”