Take closer look at Bangladeshi recruitment agents, says Santiago

 

The government has signed an MoU with Bangladesh, allowing 25 recruitment agents and their sub-agents to source for workers for Malaysia.

PETALING JAYA: Klang MP Charles Santiago has urged the government to delve deeper into the 25 Bangladeshi recruitment agents and their 10 sub-agents tasked with the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia.

While human resources minister M Saravanan said the decision to allow these 275 companies to recruit workers proved that there was no monopoly, Santiago said it was crucial that the agencies be put under the microscope to minimise the risk of forced labour.

In an interview with a news portal, Saravanan said he “did not know any of these companies” as the list of agents and sub-agents was provided by Bangladesh.

But Santiago said: “A lot of these companies have interlocking directorships, and we don’t actually know who owns them.

Charles Santiago.

“They say it’s 25 (agents) but actually, it may be just two or three people, and the operations may all be under different (company) names.

“There must be due diligence by the government, and it should also be made public whether there are actually 275 separate companies or whether they are all proxies.”

Earlier this month, the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) called for equal opportunity to allow its 1,600 members to send workers to Malaysia.

The association had previously said the 10 agencies chosen by Malaysia had monopolised recruitment between 2016 and 2018.

Malaysia and Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Dec 19 to lift a freeze on new Bangladeshi workers which had been in place since September 2018.

Saravanan pointed to the increase in the number of recruiting agents to 25 and sub-agents to 250 after claims that the number created a monopoly.

“If we want a recruitment monopoly, we can just keep the 10 agencies on the grounds stipulated in the old MoU. But I increased it to 275 (agents and sub-agents). There is no monopoly,” he said.

He also said Malaysian agencies would not be involved in the recruitment process and that their responsibilities were “clearly spelt out” in the MoU.

However, several parties have raised concerns that details of the MoU have not been made public, with some saying it would create a syndicate to manage recruitment between the two countries.

Independent migrant worker rights specialist Andy Hall noted last week that such syndicates could increase migration costs for workers that would, in turn, result in their debt bondage and systematic forced labour.

Hall told FMT it was “irrational” that only 275 companies were selected.

He also said that with increasing emphasis placed on ESG (environment, social and governance), major companies, investors and brands would choose not to hire Bangladesi migrant workers coming to Malaysia through a syndicated process as it would fall foul of international standards.

“There are no such limits for workers from Indonesia, Myanmar or Nepal, so a lot of explaining has to be done.

“There has to be a clear, transparent and objective selection criteria if they want to limit the number of agencies,” he said.

Hall also rubbished Saravanan’s claim that the ministry appointed the 275 agents and sub-agents, instead of 1,600 agencies as Baira requested, as it did not want Malaysia to be turned into a “dumping ground” for migrant workers.

He said the home ministry had the final say on how many workers were recruited by Malaysia and that the number of agencies involved was “completely irrelevant”.

A total of 326,669 Bangladeshi nationals were working in the country as of Nov 30, with the majority of them in construction (136,897) and manufacturing (111,694). - FMT