The first batch of Bangladeshi workers will leave Dhaka today to join plantation jobs in Malaysia, for the first time under state arrangements at one-eighth the earlier migration costs.
Seventy workers from Dhaka, Narayanganj, Gazipur and Manikganj will leave Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport by Malaysia Airlines for Kuala Lumpur at 12:40pm.
Another 70 will fly on Saturday and 60 on Monday, said Director General of Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training Begum Shamsun Nahar.
The state arrangement, initiated two years back, resumed manpower export to Malaysia after it was suspended in 2009 for allegations of middlemen’s intervention and irregularities in the recruitment process.
While a job seeker had to spend Tk 2 lakh to 2.8 lakh for a Malaysian job through private recruiting agencies, they now have to pay only Tk 33,178.
“I don’t know how to thank the government for arranging me the job hassle-free and at such a low cost,” said Sumon Chandra Das, a job seeker from Dhaka.
Sohel Hossain had to pay a private agency Tk 2.2 lakh for a cleaner’s job in 2007 in Malaysia. He returned home in 2011 as he could not secure a permanent job and failed to save any money.
“I had to pay my agent an amount every month,” Sohel said.
Talking to The Daily Star, Ali Haider Chowdhury, secretary general of Baira, said that workers were charged high migration cost as the interim government (2007-08) had no control over the recruiting agencies.
Asked how much they had charged each Malaysia-bound worker then, he put the sum between Tk 1.20 lakh and 1.80 lakh.
More than 700,000 Bangladeshis were working in different sectors in Malaysia, according to the BMET.Of the $14.17 billion remittance sent by Bangladeshi expatriates last year, workers in Malaysia alone sent around $800 million, it added.
Around 1.5 million aspirants registered online in January for the Malaysian jobs. Of them, 10,000 were selected and given technical training at 23 centres across the country.
The Malaysian High Commission in Dhaka later issued visas to 200 of the applicants last week, said Shamsun Nahar, adding that they expect to get confirmation for visas for 500 more workers soon.
On landing in Malaysia, the workers will sign a renewable two-year job contract and get a salary of 900 ringgit (equivalent to Tk 25,000) a month.
Their employers will bear expenses for accommodation, while the workers will have to pay for their food. The employers will also bear the workers’ pay levy costs, said BMET.
Source: The Daily Star
