Bangladesh plans to send as many as 800,000 workers abroad in fiscal 2021-22, as Malaysia is set to reopen the labour market to workers from the South Asian country.
In the first four months of the fiscal year, more than 250,000 Bangladeshis were employed abroad, according to Ahmed Munirus Saleheen, the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment secretary, reports bdnews24.com.
In November alone, over 100,000 Bangladeshis left the country for work overseas, he said at a news conference on Friday, the eve of International Migrants Day. “If this trend continues, we hope 700,000 to 800,000 people will be employed abroad this fiscal year.”
Malaysia will reopen its labour market to Bangladeshis after a four-year pause. A memorandum of understanding will be signed with Malaysia “soon”, he said.
“We hope employment opportunities for a large number of Bangladeshis will be created in Malaysia through this MoU.”
Malaysia had begun taking in workers from Bangladesh under a government-to-government deal in 2016, but the Malaysian authorities paused the intake of workers under the deal in 2018 after allegations of widespread fraud surfaced against a Bangladeshi expatriate manpower exporter.
About 600,000 Bangladeshi migrants work in the Southeast Asian country.
Many of them returned home at the onset of the pandemic last year, but could not go back to work in Malaysia as the country is allowing only its citizens to fly in from Bangladesh.
The local media last week reported that Malaysia’s cabinet agreed that M Saravanan, the human resources minister, sign a memorandum of understanding or MoU to take in workers from Bangladesh.
Saravanan said the entry will be allowed after he signs the MoU “soon” with Imran Ahmad, the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment minister of Bangladesh.
Amid a labour shortage, the Malaysian cabinet also agreed on the recruitment of foreign workers for all sectors, apart from the plantation. The other sectors allowed to recruit foreign workers are agriculture, manufacturing, services, mining and quarrying, construction and domestic service.
Malaysia is reportedly facing a shortage of workers in five 3D (dirty, dangerous and difficult) sectors, namely plantation, manufacturing, construction, agriculture and services due to poor response from the locals.
Secretary Saleheen said at the press conference that Minister Imran had recently signed a letter of interest with Greece to send workers. Bangladesh expects similar deals to be signed with Albania, Malta and Bosnia.
Bangladesh has also begun sending workers to new labour markets in Cambodia, Uzbekistan, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Japan, Senegal, Burundi, Seychelles and some other countries, according to the secretary.