Bangladesh labour deal: Bestinet says FWCMS agency list invalid

IT solutions provider Bestinet Sdn Bhd has clarified that a list of 24 Bangladesh recruitment agencies said to be from its Foreign Workers Centralised Management System (FWCMS) is no longer valid.

"In fact, the list of recruitment agents for all labour source countries including Bangladesh was taken down in February for a review by the Human Resources Ministry as well as embassies of the respective countries.

"This follows the pandemic which led to disruptions including some recruitment agencies going out of business," said Bestinet in a statement to Malaysiakini yesterday.

Following the Malaysia-Bangladesh Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting in Dhaka last week, several Bangladesh news outlets highlighted a list of 25 Bangladesh recruitment agencies speculated to have been selected to send workers to Malaysia via the FWCMS.

Questions were also raised on selection criteria for the agencies hit with allegations of monopolising the labour market through an alleged syndicate with purported connections in Bangladesh and Malaysia.

Industry sources from Bangladesh told Malaysiakini that the initial list, now removed from FWCMS, includes three agencies owned by sitting Bangladesh MPs and another run by the wife of a federal minister.

"As reported, Human Resources Minister M Saravanan said that the cabinet will decide on the final list and the update will be made available when that is announced," said Bestinet.

Bestinet chief executive officer Ismail Mohd Noor

The company's chief executive officer Ismail Mohd Noor in an interview with Malaysiakini previously said the company has no direct ties with any licensed recruitment agencies listed on the FWCMS.

Ismail's denial at the time was issued in response to "syndication" claims that implicated Bestinet through the company's founder and director Aminul Islam Abdul Nor - a naturalised Malaysian said to have high-ranking connections within Putrajaya.

In the past, Saravanan had also denied the alleged existence of a syndicate and monopoly.

Wage deductions

Following the JWG meeting with Bangladesh's Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad, Saravanan said a committee within his ministry had scrutinised a submitted list of 1,520 agencies, from which the cabinet will make a final decision that would restart entries of workers by this month.

He said Malaysia imposes zero-cost on migrant workers and employers risk losing their hiring quotas if caught making wage deductions to recoup any payments made.

Saravanan also said the government, however, has no control over any costs incurred in source countries prior to the workers' arrival and employment here.

Human Resources Minister M Saravanan

In response, migrant labour activist Andy Hall said past recruitments have shown how it is uncommon for workers to face wage deductions here.

"The norm for a long time in the recruitment process into Malaysia is when the Malaysian employer or its agents actually collect all the money ‘in advance’ from workers at source before they arrive in Malaysia, via their source country manpower agencies," said Hall in a statement.

"The money collected is then passed through the recruitment chain from worker to agent to employer.

"Rarely do workers pay in form of deductions on arrival, although it does happen too," he added.

A Malaysiakini joint investigation with Bangladesh's newspaper Kaler Kantho in 2019 also revealed how workers found in exploitative conditions here had taken up debts of up to RM17,000 for their passage, prior to the suspension of the recruitment process under then Pakatan Harapan administration. - Mkini