Malaysian Labour Agencies Back Bangladesh S End Syndicates Call

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Malaysia should adopt the same open process in place for sourcing migrant workers from 14 other countries in managing the new recruitments from Bangladesh.
The National Association of Malaysian Employment Agencies (Papsma) said this in objecting to reported plans to only involve 25 selected Bangladesh Recruitment Agencies (BRAs) and 250 sub-agents under what has been described as an alleged syndicate. 
When contacted, Papsma secretary-general Sukumaran Nair said he had represented four Malaysian employment agencies during a press conference held by the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) in Dhaka yesterday.
"I on behalf of these four associations said we are totally against any process of syndication, monopoly, collusion involving selected recruitment agencies from any country.
"We (Malaysia) have 14 source countries and there is no system where the government only recruits (migrant) workers from selected agencies representing any of the countries," said Sukumaran. 
"Other than Bangladesh, our biggest exporters of manpower are Indonesia, Philippines, India but there are no specific agents appointed from the countries to send workers to Malaysia.
"So we mentioned that we are totally against the (appointment) process and we are in solidarity with Baira to eradicate this syndication monopoly, because it happened in 2016 and the Malaysian government put a stop to it in 2018," Sukumaran told Malaysiakini.
Aside from Papsma, the three other groups comprise Papa, Pikap and Pusma - each representing various companies registered under the Malaysian Private Employment Agencies Act 1981. 
Bangladesh-daily The Business Standard yesterday quoted Baira former president Abul Bashar, who led the press conference, as reiterating the organisation representing some 1,400 BRA's demand for equal opportunity to send workers to Malaysia. 
"Bangladesh, as a sovereign country, should be allowed to send its workers to Malaysia without any syndicate.
"All recruiting agencies are of equal qualifications and they have acquired licences by providing the same amount of money so they cannot be considered sub-agents of the 25 chosen ones," Abul Bashar was quoted as saying.
Sukumaran also alluded to allegations previously raised in an open letter believed to be circulated by whistleblowers from within Putrajaya, exposing the syndicate members supposedly backed by individuals with connections in Malaysia and Bangladesh.
He said the associations' support for Baira was also based on facts that any form of monopoly in the recruitment process would go against competition laws in both countries.
"We want the Malaysian Recruitment Agencies to work together with BRAs, especially in the area of decent recruitment where we don't want to fleece the workers of any money.
"We want to tell the Bangladesh workers that employers here (in Malaysia) will pay for all the process of recruitment, so I (Malaysian agencies) don't need to take any money from them," he said.
Amid uncertainties and protests surrounding the Malaysia-Bangladesh labour MOU inked on last Dec 18, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced on Jan 28 that new applications by employers to hire migrant workers from Bangladesh are now open in stages. - Mkini

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