Ahead of Malaysia trip, PM urged to end recruitment syndicate system

The Migrant Welfare Network (MWN) has submitted a letter to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman ahead of his visit to Malaysia, urging him to dismantle recruitment syndicates.

The alliance, comprised of Bangladeshi migrants, said the letter highlighted human rights violations faced by workers throughout the migration process to Malaysia over the previous years.

The members of the network also held a human chain in front of the National Press Club today, drawing attention of the prime minister, who is set to visit Malaysia on June 21-22.

Labour recruitment by Malaysia remains halted since June 2024. Reopening of the labour market will come up as a major discussion during the meeting between Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and his Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim.

In a statement issued today, MWN said Bangladesh is the only country subjected to a “syndicate-based recruitment model” in Malaysia, where worker recruitment is channelled through a limited number of agencies despite the country’s heavy reliance on migrant labour.

Between 2022 and May 31, 2024, Malaysia recruited about 450,000 Bangladeshis through a syndicate of 101 recruitment agents, selected unilaterally by Malaysia despite Bangladesh’s call for making it a syndicate-free recruitment mechanism.

The recruitment cost for an individual should not exceed Tk 79,000 ($750), but each migrant worker spent between $4,500 and $6,000 for a job in Malaysia, according to migrants and researchers.

“The Bangladesh-Malaysia migration corridor remains one of the most economically significant labour migration routes in Asia, yet it continues to operate under a lawless syndicate system enabling exploitation, monopolisation, and impunity,” the MWN said in the statement.

Currently, there are about eight lakh Bangladeshis working legally in Malaysia, but many have become undocumented because of the exploitative system.

The group stressed that the root cause of labour issues affecting Bangladeshi migrant workers is recruitment syndicates.

“Without dismantling the syndicate system, no reform will be sustainable in this migration corridor.

“The syndicate system remains the central driver of corruption, worker exploitation, excessive migration costs, and repeated governance failures in the Bangladesh-Malaysia migration corridor,” it said.

It urged the Bangladesh government to replace the memorandum of understanding (MoU) it signed with Malaysia in 2021 with a bilateral labour agreement to guarantee worker protections and eliminate recruitment syndicates and ensure a transparent recruitment system.

They also called for regularising the undocumented Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia, ensure that owed unpaid wages, compensation, and legal entitlements are paid to migrant workers and ending practices of passport confiscation, forced labour, and abuse against migrant workers.

“Strengthen the accountability, responsiveness, and services of the Bangladesh High Commission in Malaysia, and establish a permanent and transparent mechanism under the Bangladeshi prime minister’s office to address the grievances of migrant workers as well as the governance of their issues,” the statement said.