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Dhaka to press Kuala Lumpur to recruit more workers for the construction sector
Malaysian Human Resources Minister Richard Riot Anak Jaem is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on August 18 on a two-day official visit to Bangladesh.
Bilateral talks on labour migration is scheduled to take place at the conference room of the Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry on Monday, official sources said.
Expat Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain would lead a 10-member delegation at the meeting while his Malaysian counterpart Anak Jaem a 9-member delegation.
“We will press the Malaysian human resources minister to recruit a significant number of workers from Bangladesh,” Expat Secretary Khondaker Showkat Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Since the signing of an agreement between the two countries on November 26 in 2012, a small number of workers had gone to Malaysia to work at the plantation sector.
Officials at Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training said a total of 5,558 workers had gone to Malaysia under the government-to-government system. Besides, 518 workers were now in the pipeline, they added.
A worker has to spend around Tk30,000 to go to Malaysia while private recruiting agencies charge Tk200,000-Tk300,000 to send a worker to that country.
A senior official working at the ministry said, “Malaysia requires a huge number of workers for the construction sector and factories as the Malaysian government has undertaken huge development activities.”
“We will request the Malaysian human resources minister to recruit workers for the construction sector,” he said preferring anonymity.
During his visit to Dhaka nearly five months back, the Malaysian home minister proposed recruiting workers through private recruiting agencies, but the prime minister rejected the proposal, the official told the Dhaka Tribune.
He pointed out that private recruiting agencies in Bangladesh and some quarters in Malaysia were opposing the g-to-g system, resulting in a slowdown in labour migration to Malaysia.
The expat secretary said Malaysia would recruit 12,000 workers for the plantation sector in Sarawak province. “We will discuss about the recruitment during bilateral talks.”
According to the Expat Ministry, at least 5 lakh Bangladeshi workers are now working in Malaysia.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
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