Come clean on import of Bangladeshi foreign workers, Ramasamy tells govt

Updated 1 year ago · Published on 20 Jun 2022 11:07AM · 1 Comments

Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P. Ramasamy attacks the government’s plans to recruit migrant labour from Bangladesh, saying restrictions in place are not similarly applied to other nations. – Facebook pic, June 20, 2022.

THE Human Resources Ministry must come clean on how it has picked just 25 out of the many labour recruitment agencies in Bangladesh, said Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P. Ramasamy.

“The minister, M. Saravanan, might be doing his best to address the problem of labour shortages in the country, but he must come clean and be transparent.

“Taken as a whole, the foreign labour recruitment process is replete with allegations of corruption, financial misdeeds and the improper treatment of workers,” he said in a statement today, adding that, while recruitment agencies and employers benefit immensely from foreign labour, many of these workers are badly treated.

“The debt bondage they incur will permanently disable them from becoming free human beings.

“It is no secret that foreign labour recruitment reinforces the existence and continuation of forced labour in the country,” Ramasamy said.

The Perai assemblyman was commenting on reports that the Bangladesh government was unhappy with Malaysia’s plan to limit the number of recruitment processes to 25 companies.

According to Saravanan, the government decided to limit the number to safeguard the welfare of the foreign workers.

Ramasamy said the memorandum of understanding with Bangladesh is aimed at addressing the acute labour shortage in the country.

“However, while no shortlist has been imposed on the 13 other countries from which Malaysia imports labour, it is not clear why the need to do so for Bangladesh.

“Is it not known the criteria used in shortlisting these agencies and why others were not included when there are hundreds of agencies in Bangladesh,” he said.

By limiting the number to 25, the recruitment costs could go up four- or five-fold, from the present cost of RM5,900 a worker now, Ramasamy said, adding that this would dramatically increase the costs for employers in Malaysia.

“However, knowing the employers, the cost will be transferred to the workers themselves.

“It is inevitable that the syndication of labour recruitment might be financially ruinous to those recruited,” he added. – June 20, 2022.

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Comments

  • This country is really going to the dogs. The biz people have been suffering for so long, waiting to recruit foreign workers as no locals want to work or stay long enough. The economy of the country is dependent on foreign workers and thats the sad truth whether you like it or not. SMEs are closing shops because of this problem but this government seem to be taking its sweet time to allow workers in. The sooner you get this sorted out the sooner the economy can improve so we could move on. Those people sitting in their ivory tower have no idea how much the people are suffering. If only we have a action oriented person like Jokowi as PM, this country will be flying.

    Posted 1 year ago by Elyse Gim · Reply