Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
Tribune Report
The cabinet has approved a draft for an MoU with Malaysia, paving way for 1.5 million Bangladeshis to migrate to the Southeast Asian country under the G2G Plus scheme over the next three years.
After the draft for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) received a nod in a cabinet meeting at the secretariat yesterday, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told reporters that Bangladesh and Malaysia would sign the MoU this month.
Along with the government, private agencies would also be allowed to recruit labourers to Malaysia under the scheme, Shafiul said.
Once the new MoU is signed, the previous migration schemes of Business-to-Business (B2B) and Government-to-Government (G2G) would be cancelled, the cabinet secretary added.
Bangladeshis willing to migrate under G2G Plus would have to spent Tk34,000 to Tk37,000 as migration cost.
Under the scheme, Malaysia would recruit Bangladeshi workers in construction, service, manufacturing and agriculture sectors; earlier, hirings were done only for plantations.
Malaysian government’s recruitment of Bangladeshi workers stopped in 2008 for high migration costs and forgery by local migration recruiters. According to the government, 131,762 Bangladeshi workers went to Malaysia in 2008.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
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