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Malaysia Readies New Deal for Bangladesh's Fleeced Migrant Workers

Zsombor Peter

   KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - Malaysia is edging toward a new deal with
   Bangladesh to lift a ban imposed on migrant workers from Bangladesh
   more than a year ago over concerns that recruitment agencies were
   driving them into forced labor.

   Rights advocates are hopeful but wary that the deal being negotiated
   will break up the "syndicate" they accuse of monopolizing the labor
   pipeline at the migrant workers' expense.

   Malaysia stopped allowing Bangladeshi migrant workers into the country
   in September 2018 amid mounting news reports that only 10 recruitment
   agencies from among hundreds in Bangladesh were being allowed to send
   workers to Malaysia. They were being accused of driving up the costs of
   landing a job to $5,000, forcing the workers to take on crippling debts
   that all but enslaved them to their recruiters or employers.

   A joint statement issued by both countries on Nov. 6 said they expected
   to amend a 2016 memorandum of understanding that established the labor
   pipeline by the end of the month.

   But Amir bin Omar, secretary general of Malaysia's Human Resources
   Ministry, said tentative plans to sign a deal on Tuesday, and for
   another joint meeting on Sunday to set a date to lift the ban, would
   likely be postponed because the details had yet to be settled.

   Omar said the ministry has also decided that it wants the full
   Malaysian Cabinet to approve the deal before the two countries meet,
   rather than after, but still expects that it will be signed by early
   December.

   "They've almost agreed, almost 90 percent. It's just a little bit
   [left]. Better to get approval from the Cabinet; I don't know when. We
   will try to do it as soon as possible," Omar said.

   "We are talking about who has to [pay], the employer or the employee,
   how much; that is the thing we need to discuss in detail," he added.

   Omar said migrant workers would very likely still have to cover some of
   the costs, such as their travel. But he added that Malaysia was intent
   on taking most of the financial burden off their backs and to open up
   the recruitment process to more agencies.

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