Bangladesh to get ‘source country’ status for labour export to Malaysia

After long endeavours, Bangladesh is going to achieve ‘source country’ status from Malaysia to export workers regularly in the southeast Asian country, a top official of the government said Sunday.
   ‘Most of the barriers to export manpower to Malaysia would be removed with the new status and the migration cost will also be downsized,’ expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan told the news agency.
   He said the Malaysian government has responded positively after Bangladesh formally wrote a letter to get the special status that would ensure regular and smooth supply of workforce to Malaysia, already employing five lakh Bangladesh workers.
   ‘Once the deal is signed, Bangladesh will not require any special permission and arrangement to send skilled, semi-skilled and even unskilled labour force to Malaysia,’ the employment secretary said adding labour market in Malaysia is expected to be widened under the new status.
   Zafar, who just returned from Malaysia, said a total of 13 labour exporting countries have the ‘source country’ status, but Bangladesh did not enjoy it despite being the second highest contributor of manpower to Malaysia after Indonesia.
   He said both Bangladesh and Malaysia reached consensus that the labour force would be recruited based on transparency and protection of human rights. He said Bangladesh would now focus more on developing trained manpower to get employment in Malaysia in specific fields.
   Steps would also be taken to bolster monitoring over the recruiting agencies so that none of them could send labour forces more than the required numbers in Malaysia, he said adding the government is planning to devise a long term plan to harness the full potential from Malaysian labour market.
   Malaysia stopped recruiting Bangladesh labour force and asked a huge number of unauthorised poor workforce to return home, an order that was reversed after prime minister Sheikh Hasina visited Malaysia.
   The country has absorbed illegal workforce and signed a new deal to recruit 5,000 fishermen from Bangladesh.