Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad on Tuesday said that Bangladesh will send workers to Malaysia from only those registered in the database of Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET).
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, the minister also said manpower export to Malaysia may start from January next year.
Earlier on Sunday, Bangladesh and Malaysia signed a memorandum of understanding to initiate manpower export facilities to the Southeast Asian country.
With the MoU signing, Malaysia formally reopened its labour market for Bangladeshi workers after a suspension of over three years.
Last week in a media statement, the Malaysian government said Bangladeshi workers’ recruitment would resume immediately after signing of the MoU in sectors such as plantations, agriculture, manufacturing, services, mining and quarrying, construction, and domestic work.
Over 10.5 lakh Bangladeshi workers have so far migrated to Malaysia. Besides, more than 20,000 workers who came to Bangladesh from Malaysia on vacation before the coronavirus pandemic are now stranded here.
According to the BMET data, despite the recruitment suspension, 7.89 per cent of the total Bangladeshi migrants currently work in Malaysia.
The bureau statistics show 2,73,201 Bangladeshis were recruited by Malaysian employers in 2007. In September 2018, when Malaysia suspended recruitment, 1,75,927 Bangladeshis had migrated there in the previous nine months.
Since then, Malaysia recruited only 688 Bangladeshis.
According to the latest Bangladesh Bank data, the inflow of remittance from Malaysia dropped to $290.86 million in the July-September period of 2021 against the inflow of $607.24 million in the corresponding period in 2020.
The remittance inflow in 2019 was $1.19 billion from Malaysia to Bangladesh.
