Dr. Asif Nazrul, the Advisor for Bangladesh Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment discussed labour migration and other important bilateral issues with YB Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution bin Ismail, the Home Minister of Malaysia and YB Steven Sim Chee Keong the Minister for Human Resources in two separate meetings held in Putrajaya on Thursday (15 May, 2025).
Lutfey Siddiqi, the Special Envoy of the Chief Adviser on International Affairs accompanied Adviser in the meetings.
The main issues discussed at the meeting are summarized below:
The Malaysian Ministers expressed their firm commitment to support the interim Government of Bangladesh led by Professor Muhammad Yunus and its crucial reform agenda. While recognizing the important role played by the Bangladeshi migrants in the development of Malaysia. They expressed their strong desire to reset the labour relations with Bangladesh and diversify the bilateral relations by exploring potentials for collaboration in other areas, such as, trade, investment as development partners.
Referring to the commitment of the Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to address the issue of 17,000+ stranded Bangladeshi workers, who despite fulfilling all condition and paying full migration cost were not able to enter Malaysia within the deadline of 31 May 2024, Hon’ble Advisor requested the Malaysian side to consider their recruitment in Malaysia at the earliest opportunity.
The Malaysian Minister of Human Resources informed that, the Government of Malaysia has decided to process soon the recruitment of 7,964 stranded workers in the first batch and as proposed by Bangladesh, the recruitment process of those workers will be handled by Bangladesh Overseas Employment Services Limited (BOESL).
Malaysian side referred to the ongoing policy reforms in its labour sector including its multi-tier levy system and quota for foreign workers in its key sectors. They also mentioned that Bangladesh will get top priority in the recruitment of foreign workers in the upcoming calling.
Both sides recognized the need for addressing the challenges in the recruitment system, with a view to ensuring a fair, ethical, and transparent migration process and reducing the migration cost. The Malaysian Government informed that they have decided to introduce a common system for recruitment of migrant workers which they will apply to all source countries.
Referring to the existing recruitment system that excludes a large number of recruiting agencies and allows monopoly in the recruitment process, the Advisor of Bangladesh requested the Malaysian side to consider opening the market to all registered recruiting agencies of Bangladesh.
The Malaysian Government assured to ensure access of all qualified and compliant recruiting agencies. They also proposed to introduce a performance review mechanism and arrange more frequent meetings between the two countries at the technical level to address complaints in the recruitment process, which Bangladesh welcomed.
The Advisor drew the attention of the Home Minister to the via related problems faced by Bangladeshi workers. He requested the Malaysian Home Minister to consider issuing multiple entry visas to the Bangladeshi workers, consistent with the practice applicable to other source countries. The Malaysian Government informed that they are currently working on a proposal to revisit this provision of single-entry visa for Bangladeshi workers. Hopefully very soon the Bangladeshi workers will be granted multiple entry visas.
The advisor also raised the issue of regularizing the irregular workers of Bangladesh, many of whom lost their regular status due to reasons beyond their control. The Malaysian side informed that they usually introduce recalibration process which offers the irregular workers to regularize their status upon payment of a fee; however, it is done on a compassionate basis. They also stressed the importance of educating the migrants to comply with the immigration law.
The advisor requested the Malaysian side to consider recruiting more Bangladeshi workers in the skilled / professional categories and expressed Bangladesh’s readiness to provide doctors, nurses, security guards etc. The Malaysian Ministers took positive note of the proposal, epically for recruitment of nurses and agreed to work at the technical level to explore opportunities for migration in those sectors.
The delegation of Bangladesh in the meetings included Dr. Neyamat Ullah Bhuiyan, Senior Secretary of Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, Mr. Md Shameem Ahsan, High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Malaysia, Mosammat Shahanara Monica, Minister (Political), Syed Shariful Islam, Counselor (Labour), Mr. Md Sarwoer Alam, Private Secretary to the Hon’ble Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Adviser and Mr. A.S.M. Zahidur Rahman, First Secretary (Labour).
On the Malaysian side, the Secretary Generals, the heads of key departments and the senior officials of the respective Ministries were present in the meetings.
