Bangladesh urges govt to verify demand as workers arrive to no jobs

 

The government’s approval process for the recruitment of migrant workers lacks transparency, the Bangladesh High Commission said.

The high commission, in a Facebook post, yesterday bemoaned that it has led to migrant workers arriving in Malaysia being left unemployed.

It stressed that it is the responsibility of the Labour Department, under the Human Resources Ministry, to ensure the legal rights of all domestic and migrant workers.

“It’s not possible for any country’s embassy to verify the demand for employees (migrant workers) by 100 percent. In this case, the embassy must depend on the approval of the Malaysian authorities.

“This applies to the embassies of all sourcing countries, including Bangladesh.

“In approximately 95 percent of the cases, the Bangladesh High Commission verifies the demands via related documents, whether the approvals of various Malaysian authorities are correct or otherwise.

“The remaining five percent of the cases are verified by the embassy visiting the employer’s office of the project site,” the high commission said.

However, it added that it is not practical for the Bangladesh High Commission to visit the aforementioned work sites as such an exercise would slow down the arrival of workers in the country.

“Bangladesh would also be deprived of its due benefits as competing countries might seize the opportunity.”

Diplomatic letter

While the high commission acknowledged that properly verifying employers could reduce the risk of unemployment of Bangladeshi workers, it claimed that the Malaysian government warned against inspecting project sites.

It divulged a diplomatic letter that was sent to its high commission, stating that only the Malaysian Labour Department has the sole jurisdiction to inspect local companies.

“This issue was discussed extensively, in the recent bilateral meeting during the home minister’s (Saifuddin Nasution Ismail) visit to Bangladesh.

“It is the responsibility of the Malaysian government to ensure the accuracy of the recruitment demand, which was assured by a representative from the Human Resources Ministry.”

However, it revealed that the government’s warning had not stopped its on-site investigations in a bid to protect Bangladeshi workers.

Meanwhile, it said Putrajaya had informed Bangladesh of numerous measures to improve the management and recruitment of migrant workers.

“The Bangladesh High Commission applauds the efforts and plans of the current government of Malaysia and the ministers of relevant ministries to ensure the development and greater transparency of the long-standing system of employing foreign workers.”

This comes after several groups of migrant workers have been left out in the cold, some left stranded at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and not provided with jobs after arriving in the country.

The latest case involved over 200 Bangladeshi and Nepalese migrant workers stranded at a transit home for 40 days in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan and yet to be given work.

In a raid on Monday (April 10), Human Resources Minister V Sivakumar said the workers were living in “appalling” conditions at the transit home.

They have since been relocated to nearby Centralised Labour Quarters where they will be provided with food and shelter.

Sivakumar added that the 226 workers were part of an intake of 608 workers for three companies in the janitorial services sector and 390 workers for one company in the manufacturing sector.

This is out of a quota of 1,719 migrant workers approved for these companies.

However, 327 workers are still out of work, and another 281 have been placed in sectors where migrant workers are not allowed to work.

In a statement later, the ministry said it would look for jobs for the 327 workers to prevent them from falling prey to job scams and human traffickers, which would have an adverse impact on Malaysia’s forced labour indicators. - Mkini