Valid licence holders hail govt stance against syndicated recruitment

The country’s manpower exporters lauded the government stance against syndication, which is aimed at creating equal opportunity for all licensed recruiters and sending migrant workers at low cost and hassel free.

Recently, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment to make the overseas employment process “very transparent” and conduct a massive campaign to raise awareness among the jobseekers abroad.

She gave the directives amid an ongoing row over Malaysia’s suggestion for forming a syndicate to export manpower to the southeast Asian country from Bangladesh.

The prime minister issued instruction that the process will have to be made very precise and transparent for those who will go abroad.

Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) expressed their satisfaction to the government move at a press conference tittled “Supporting the government anti-syndicate stance on sending workers to Malaysia and demanding open market for all legitimate recruiting agencies” held in a city hotel on Thursday.

In his address, former BAIRA president Mohd Noor Ali said the previous FWCMS-SPPA system under which manpower used to be exported to Malaysia from Bangladresh was faulty and corruption-prone.

“To come out of that rogue system, the government of Bangladesh can propose a system, which the Malaysian government can act on,” he suggested.

As an alternative, Ali said both Bangladesh and Malaysian governments can develop an integrated system under which uninterrupted and syndication-free low cost manpower export can take place.

Elaborating further, the former BAIRA president maintained that due to being faulty former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad scraped the system, and after that in recent time an MoU was signed between the two countries allowing 1,500 recruitment agencies from Bangladesh.

The Malaysian employers will choose their desired Bangladeshi recruiters from the 1500, he pointed out.

Expressing his frustration, the Unique Group managing director recalled that in 2017-2018 only 2.75 lack workers from Bangladesh went to Msalaysia as major potential sectors like electronics, plantation, security, and handgloves were excluded during the period.

Concluding his observations, Ali said if syndication is repeated again, no manpower could be exported to these demanding four sectors again.

Expressing his wonder, the business tycoon said no other 13 countries except Bangladesh bear the high cost of sending workers to Malaysia.

“Why should Bangladesh alone bear such a huge cost of sending manpower to Malaysia?” he posed a question.

Organisers said under the FWCMS-SPPA system, a recruitment firm called ‘Vestinate’ was the main syndicate earlier.

Exporter say an estimated 9 lakh Bangladeshi workers went abroad without any such system.

“As per the announcement of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, 1,000 workers from each Upazila would be sent abroad. However, if manpower is exported through a syndicate to a big labour market like Malaysia, there will be irregularities and corruption again,” accroing to Mohammad Abul Bashar, another former president of BAIRA, who presented a written statement at the press conference.

BAIRA former president Mohd Noor Ali added that after the process of exporting manpower to Malaysia got underway, those who have valid recruitment licences will be able to export manpower and there will be no hassle.

“In the last Annual General Meeting, we said we would take only the service charge. Our premier has issued directive to keep the manpower export market open for all. If we follow this, migration costs will come down,” he maintained.

Responding to a question from a journalist Noor Ali said due to the syndicate, it was not possible to send workers to Malaysia last time despite a huge demand in many sectors, especially in the electronics, security and so on.

“Because Taiwan, Japan, South Korea are investing in these sectors. They cover all expenses including staff airfare. But after hearing the news of the syndicate collecting Tk 3 to Tk 4 lakh from per person, they stopped hiring manpower from Bangladesh.”

Medical hassle

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment will select the names of medical centres for the migrant workers after reviewing quality of the centre. In the name of the Bio-Medical and foreign Service providers, workers should not be hostage in Malaysia.

A huge amount of money had been taken last year in the name of medical test and X-Ray by the Malaysian doctor and Bio-Medical Centre. To earn money, about 40 per cent aspiring migrant workers were shown unfit in the first phases. Despite showing so-called digitised services, about 5,000 migrant workers tested unfit in Malaysia, it was alleged.

Migrant workers from 14 countries need to do medical check-up in Malaysia by an Malaysian organisation called Foreign Workers Medical Examination Programme.

Due to substandard medical centre, testing labs and fake check-ups, a good number of migrant labour had to return home empty-handed.

Abul Bashar also said Malaysia should take workers from Bangladesh without the syndicate like 13 other countries. The practice of syndicating while hiring workers only from Bangladesh is disrespectful for the country.

Due to the extra migration costs and exploitation of workers in Malaysia, some of their products have been banned by various countries, including Canada and the United States, he added.

“Those who had syndicated last time are still active. We do not know who these 25 recruiters are but for them 1,500 legitimate agent of the country cannot work as brokers or sub-agents,” said the former president.

“I fear that the innocent workers going abroad will fall prey to syndicate, while the owners of most legitimate recruitment agencies will be deprived of level-playing field again,” said former president of BAIRA Mohammad Abul Bashar while presenting a written statement at the conference.

The market might get closed again as in 2017 which will have a negative impact on other labour markets as well, he added.

BAIRA former general secretary Shamim Ahmed Chowdhury Noman said the Malaysian employers will pick up their Bangladeshi recruitment agencies. The Malaysian government cannot authorise the number of agencies, it can only do the task of monitoring.

Malaysian journalists, Association of Employment Agencies, private service agencies representatives also were virtually present at the press conference and expressed their opinion over their situation.

“Syndication or monopoly manpower recruitment system badly affected our bilateral relationship between Malaysia and Bangladesh in the previous time. Baira and Bangladesh government should not approve of any kind of syndication,” Dr Sukumaran Nair, Secretary-General of National Organisation of Private Service Agencies Malaysia, told the Bangladeshi journalist.

He said: “We want that migrants from source countries come easily and the Malaysian government will protect their rights.”

“After creating an open market for all on migration sector both the governments including BAIRA will closely monitor the manpower exporting systems.

Criticism rose after Malaysian 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).

However, Imran Ahmad on January 18 responded to the Saravanan letter reiterating Bangladesh’s decision to ensure open competition in this regard.

The Malaysian National Association of Private Employment Agencies also refused to comply with its government decision on recruiting manpower from Bangladesh throu