Malaysia to recruit 500,000 Bangladeshi workers this year

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Malaysia is set to recruit 500,000 Bangladeshi workers through private agencies this year.

This was claimed by bdnews24.com, a Bangladeshi news portal, who stated in their report that Malaysia would recruit 500,000 low-skilled workers from Bangladesh under the new business-to-business (B2B) mechanism that engaged manpower agencies this year.

It claimed that Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi confirmed the recruitment through private agencies in a meeting with Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain in Putrajaya.

It went on to say that around 600,000 workers from Bangladesh were currently working in Malaysia, one of the biggest labour markets destinations of Bangladesh.

“After a long break, Malaysia resumed import of workforce from Bangladesh for its plantation sector under the G2G mechanism in 2013, but Bangladeshis are not eager to work in the plantation sector.

“The government had set a target to send 50,000 workers every six months at the time, but sent only 7,000 in the past two years, according to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET),” it stated.

Bangladesh Expatriate Welfare Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain came down Kuala Lumpur with a seven-strong delegation on Tuesday to discuss the matter.

He is also scheduled to meet Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.