Bangladesh govt: No role to vet sending agencies, only review Malaysian employers

The Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur has reaffirmed that its government has no duty to verify or select Bangladesh Recruitment Agencies (BRAs) sending its citizens as workers here.

Rather than verifying BRAs for approval, the Bangladesh High Commission said its role would be to review Malaysian employers based on documents including demand letters, employment contracts and power of attorney, and physical inspection of the working environment, accommodation facilities, medical benefits and others.

The High Commission in a statement on Facebook cited agreed terms between Dhaka and Kuala Lumpur through a memorandum signed last December and a subsequent technical meeting in June, which stated: "The government of Malaysia shall select BRA automatically through the online system from the list provided by the government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.

"It may be noted here that the Bangladesh government already handed over a list of 1,520 valid BRAs to the Malaysian government," it said.

The High Commission's statement follows what it described as inaccurate and misleading reports by several Malaysian media outlets quoting a statement issued by the Human Resources Ministry yesterday on the attestation process involving 15 BRAs.

According to the ministry's statement, the Bangladesh High Commission has completed the attestation process involving 15 BRAs and over 2,000 Bangladesh migrant workers.

"This shows that 'technical issues' faced before this in the recruitment process for Bangladeshi workers have been resolved," said the ministry.

The inaccurate reports had implied that with attestation provided to 15 BRAs, only another 10 BRAs would be selected to send workers here, based on Malaysia's insistence to limit the number to 25 agencies and 250 sub-agents.

New entries of Bangladesh migrant workers here, including to fill critical demand from the plantation sector, follow another blanket freeze imposed by the Indonesian government over Malaysia's alleged breach of terms of its bilateral agreement on recruiting domestic workers. - Mkini