Visas for workers at last

The workers were supposed to travel to Malaysia in August, but trouble started when the recruiting agent decided to charge an extra amount of money in addition to the amount that the workers had to pay under the agreement reached between the employers and the recruiters. That nearly spoiled this opportunity of exporting manpower to a booming job market.

The crisis reached a point where the Malaysian authorities clamped a temporary ban on October 4 on hiring workers from Bangladesh, since none of the 22,000 recipients of job approvals could land in their country, even two months after the scheduled time of arrival. It is heartening to know that the two sides have succeeded in resolving the problem to a great extent and it is expected that all the workers will get calling visas to travel to Malaysia very soon.

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Since manpower export occupies an important place in our economic scheme of things, it is doubly necessary that the issue be handled with great care and efficiency. The recruiting agents and the government department concerned must be aware of the conditions set by the employers and be ready to fulfill the same without wasting any time. In this particular instance, they gave a poor account of themselves. The results were frustration among the job seekers and the Malaysian authorities getting a negative impression about our way of dealing with such matters.

Procedural bottlenecks seem to obstruct, delay or even botch up many an opportunity, as we are still following the traditional methods of handling issues that are time-sensitive and have the element of competition from others. This should come to an end if we do not want to squander the possibilities coming our way.