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Foreign workers can soon apply online for Malaysian jobs

The Malaysian government has said that it will soon implement a system whereby foreign migrant workers will be able to apply for jobs in the South-East Asian nation online.
Speaking to the Malaysian media on Saturday, Malaysian Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran, said that the government is close to finalising all the preparations to hire foreign migrant labourers, especially from Nepal and Bangladesh, within a few months.

Kulasegaran further said that the Independent Foreign Workers Committee, which was formed to suggest the government the method that needs to be adopted to bring foreign workers, had finalised its report but the government has yet to endorse it. “The Malaysian government is aware of the problems being faced by foreign workers due to the use of middlemen in the hiring process.”

“After the report is endorsed by the cabinet, Malaysian firms or individuals can recruit foreign workers themselves. They will have the option to choose the type of workers they want and from any specific country,” he informed the media.

As per the recommendation of the Human Resources Ministry, now every Malaysian company or individual must deposit 250,000 ringgits with the government as security money. “If a company or individual misbehaves with a worker or does not pay the salary on time or fails to fulfil any legal obligation then the government will use that security deposit to compensate the respective worker,” Kulasegaran further informed.

According to him, the Malaysian government will soon introduce the Malaysian Recruitment Agency (MRA), a job portal, especially focused on migrant workers. Foreign workers will then be able to apply online for any job as per their skills.

“The government plans to address all the difficulties associated with hiring foreign workers in a holistic manner and simplify the entire process,” said Kulasegaran. He added that the MRA must respond to a job query within 48 hours and inform the foreign job aspirant whether they are eligible or not for the applied job. The MRA must also respond to any other query within 48 hours.

Meanwhile, the Nepal government in May last year had temporarily halted sending labourers to Malaysia as workers were being charged excessive fees for related services by private companies, namely Immigration Security Clearance and One Stop Centre. Domestic hiring agencies and workers have been criticising the government’s decision and have urged it to allow workers to go to Malaysia as soon as possible.

Nepali government officials have said that the two governments are working together to open the Malaysian labour market for Nepali migrants as soon as possible.

On October 29 last year, Nepal and Malaysia had signed a bilateral labour pact. The memorandum of understanding states that the employer firms in Malaysia will have to bear recruitment service charges, two-way airfare, visa fee, health check-up fee, security screening and levy charges, among others. The Nepal- Malaysia technical committee is expected to finalise all the legal provisions soon.

Source news from : https://thehimalayantimes.com/business/foreign-workers-can-soon-apply-online-for-malaysian-jobs/

Process to send workers to Malaysia starts in Dec

Bangladesh government will start the process to send workers to Malaysia from December’s first week, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam said today.

The minister came up with the announcement while talking to reporters at his ministry office.

The decision came after Malaysia’s Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot held a bilateral meeting with Bangladeshi Minister Nurul Islam in the capital yesterday.

READ MORE: KL to hire workers in three sectors

Malaysian Minister Datuk Seri informed Bangladesh government that they will hire workers from Bangladesh in three sectors — construction, plantation and manufacturing.

The migration cost has been set at around Tk 40,000.

Earlier on February 19, the Malaysian government suspended the recruitment of foreign workers from all countries including Bangladesh.

But the ministry officials said the agreement was not suspended rather they were negotiating on key issues like recruitment process, migration costs and salaries.

Recruitment of Bangladeshis: Malaysia may hire thru’ 10 agents

Transparency in labour recruitment from Bangladesh for Malaysia still remains a major concern though the Southeast Asian nation is going to begin the hiring in a month or two.

The two countries are at the final stage of completing a recruitment process, G2G Plus, said Expatriates’ Welfare Minister Nurul Islam after a meeting with Malaysian Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot on November 17.

G2G Plus was undertaken by Malaysia and Bangladesh after the previous state-level labour hiring arrangement, G2G, signed in late 2012, appeared less effective.

Nurul Islam, however, did not elaborate the exact mode of operation of G2G Plus, but emphasised that labour migration cost would not be more than Tk 40,000.

Business insiders alleged a Malaysian private IT company, which will manage the overall recruitment process online, has selected a cartel of 10 recruiting agents of Bangladesh to manage the entire process in exchange for huge money.

A recruiting agent told The Daily Star he wanted to work under the G2G Plus and contacted an official of the expatriates’ welfare ministry but was advised to contact the 10 agents.

“If the cartel remains, it will fully monopolise the job market. The migration cost will surely be high and it will lead to labour abuses,” said the recruiting agent asking not to be identified.

Some other agents have also come up with similar allegations, which are a matter of concern as labour relations between Malaysia and Bangladesh have always been mired in malpractices, labour exploitations and bans.

The latest twist was Malaysia’s suspending recruitment of foreign workers from all countries, including Bangladesh, on February 19 this year, a day after Dhaka and Kuala Lumpur had signed a deal over hiring workers.

The previous arrangement, G2G, did not work reportedly for lobbying by powerful syndicates in both the countries. Only some 10,000 workers were sent between 2013 and 2015 for the plantation sector.

Before that, labour recruitment from Bangladesh to Malaysia was banned since 2009 following a spell of two years of recruitment.

During that period, many companies only in papers recruited workers, who paid around Tk 2 lakh each. But thousands of them remained jobless, unpaid or underemployed. Many returned home empty-handed.

Besides, just to make money, workers were recruited and sent to Malaysia beyond the official requirement.

Malaysia in June last year announced a plan to recruit 1.5 million Bangladeshis over the next three years through private sectors. And the syndicates became active.

Malaysian media revealed that some Malaysian private companies like Bestinet, Real Time Networking and Synerflux had been lobbying both Bangladesh and Malaysian governments to win contracts to that end.

The companies — directly or indirectly — were owned by relatives of ruling party ministers. The name of Mohd Amin Bin Abdul Nor, a Bangladesh-born Malaysian citizen, came up as an influential figure playing a role behind such syndicates.

Early this year, Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) and Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur also warned that Malaysia’s possible appointment of a company — Synerflux — to regulate labour recruitment would establish a monopoly. The IT company appointed by Malaysia was not widely known.

An official of the expatriates’ welfare ministry said Malaysian employer’s application for recruiting Bangladeshi workers, its approval by the Malaysian home ministry and attestation by the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur — all would be done online.

The IT company appointed by the Malaysian government would select the recruiting agents in Bangladesh, the official said but could not specify the selection criteria.

“The cartel of 10 agents will play a role here. They will control the selection,” said a recruiting agent, wishing anonymity.

Jabed Ahmed, additional secretary to the expatriates’ welfare ministry, said they requested Malaysia to distribute the job demands among 745 Bangladeshi recruiting agents, not to any particular syndicate.

“Formation of any syndicate among the recruiting agents will certainly damage the whole process. So, we have been monitoring everything seriously in the recruitment of our people for Malaysian market,” he added.

The ministry would hold the agencies accountable if they get complaints from migrants of being charged more than TK 37,000 as migration cost, he said.

Ruhul Amin, secretary general of Baira, denied existence of any such syndicates.

“Selection of recruiting agencies depends on the Malaysian government. They may choose five or 10 agencies. It never means any syndicate to manipulate the job market,” he told The Daily Star.

Ruhul Amin claimed all licensed recruiting agents could be part of this process.