A blame game is on after the dreams of several hundred Malaysia-bound migrant workers had been shattered due to the mismanagement and dubious deals of recruiting agencies.
The government has formed a probe body to unearth as to why 17,000 aspirants failed to go to Malaysia despite having received approval and smart cards issued by the Bureau of Manpower Employment Training (BMET).
Many of the job-seekers procured the money by selling their last belongings, including land but they failed to go to Malaysia due to the mismanagement of recruiting agencies.
The recruiting agencies, on the other hand, blamed the governments of Bangladesh and Malaysia for such mismanagement.
Insiders, however, asked who is to blame actually for shattering dreams of the migrant workers.
Raising brows they said Nepal also send workers to Malaysia. But there were no reports of such mismanagement in Nepal.
There were allegations that syndicate embezzled several thousand crore taka of the aspirants. About 101 syndicate-affiliated agencies, including the Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited, were involved in the process of sending workers to Malaysia.
Record shows that migrant workers sent home $21.82 billion as remittance last year while the remittance earning was $21.28 billion in 2022 and $21.74 billion in 2021.
Dhaka University political science department chairperson and Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) founding chair Dr Tasneem Siddiqui blamed the syndication for such debacle.
“It happens as the process has been run by the syndicate,” she told the Bangladesh Post.
About the ill-fated aspirants, she said, “The money taken from the aspirants must be returned to them within quickest possible time.”
Amid an furore on the issue, Malaysian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Haznah Md Hashim mentioned about her government’s firm stance on the deadline for the entry of the foreign workers in Malaysia.
The envoy came up with the remarks after a meeting with Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment state minister Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury at the Bangladesh Secretariat.When asked whether her government would reconsider the deadline, she said, “We stand by the deadline, because we have 15 source countries and we want to ensure uniformity in the application of the deadline.”
She said that this was not particular to Bangladesh but applicable to all the 15-source countries.
Asked about the meeting, the envoy said, “The state minister requested us to reconsider the deadline and I will convey the message to Kuala Lumpur.”
When asked why the migrant workers failed to go to Malaysia, the state minister said the probe body would investigate the issue.
“Measures will be taken so that the victims who have the BMET cards or e-visas would get the compensation,” he said.
A six-member probe committee, formed to investigate the failure of recruiting agencies to send workers to Malaysia by May 31 deadline, will examine why workers were not sent to Malaysia despite having received approval and smart cards issued by the BMET, said a revised notice on Wednesday.
The notice also urges workers who missed the deadline to submit their details—including name, full address, mobile phone number, recruiting agency name, passport number, and a copy of the BMET smart card—via email to enquiry.committee.malaysia@gmail.com.
Additionally, workers can lodge their complaints and submit their information through mobile phones and WhatsApp. The contact details are as follows:
Gazi Md Shahed Anwar, Deputy Secretary of the Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry: 01924277083 and Sazzad Hossain Sarkar, Deputy Secretary of BMET: 01715228307
Mohammd Yusuf is one of the ill-fated migrants who failed to go to Malaysia despite managing Tk six lakh by selling all his belongings. Hailing from Noakhali, Yusuf paid the full amount to the recruiting agency concerned five months ago, but he failed to go to his desired destination.
After waiting at the Shahjalal International Airport for two days, he returned home crying. Even, he does not know how will he recover the money.
Like Yusuf, several hundred aspirants became victims as they failed to board on a dozen of flights to Kuala Lumpur.
Employment wing of the expatriate ministry said some 12 flights, including two special ones, took off for Kuala Lumpur with over 2,000 workers on May 31.
According to the data provided by the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment approved some 5,23,834 workers to go to Malaysia till 21 May. Later, the ministry gave the green signal to another 1,112 workers to go to Malaysia.
After a four-year suspension, the Malaysian government opened the market in 2022. In March, the Malaysian government decided that it would not take foreign workers any more. But those who have got the visas, must enter Malaysia by May 31, it said.
