Two factions of recruiting agencies clashed with each other on Thursday over alleged syndication in sending manpower to Malaysia.
The incident took place at a views exchange meeting at a city hotel, organised by the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), demanding a 'free-syndicate' migration process to the Middle East and Malaysia.
Some members of the association also engaged in conflict with the media representatives as a journalist protested when the boom of a television channel dropped on the ground during the clash.
Throughout the meeting, there was uproar over the syndicate issue.
Meanwhile in a statement issued on the day, the manpower recruiters have demanded allowing all the licenced recruiters to send workers to Malaysia. Now, a limited number of recruiters are enlisted to send the workers there.
Of the total 1,700 authorised recruiters, only 100 agencies can send the workers to Malaysia under the current arrangement.
According to the statement, although the government has fixed Tk 79,000 as migration cost for Malaysia, the workers are forced to pay more than Tk 400,000 each due to the syndication.
Md Abul Bashar, president, Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, secretary general, and other leaders of BAIRA were present at the meeting.
arafataradhaka@gmail.com