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Friday, November 26, 2021

Our worst nightmare - Malaysia may become ‘dumping ground’ for Bangladeshis



Malaysia may become ‘dumping ground’ for Bangladeshis, says Saravanan


Human resources minister M Saravanan said he will bring up to the Cabinet the final draft of the proposed labour recruitment memorandum of understanding with Bangladesh.

KUALA LUMPUR: Human resources minister M Saravanan has expressed concern that Malaysia will become a “dumping ground” if 2,000 agencies in Bangladesh are allowed to send workers here.

The Bangladeshi government has asked that the number of permitted agencies be increased from the 10 now to 2,000.

Both governments have been in discussion for almost a year on their proposed labour recruitment memorandum of understanding (MoU), he said.

Saravanan, however, said he objected to the request to have 2,000 agencies to bring in workers.

“If so many agencies (from there) want to send their foreign workers here, Malaysia could become a dumping ground.

“Before this, 10 companies could bring in foreign labour from Bangladesh. (While) I do believe it has to be expanded to more than 10, the situation has to be controlled,” he told reporters after the launch of the National Action Plan on Forced Labour at a hotel here.

“I have received a final draft of the MoU and will bring it up to the Cabinet,” he said, adding that a final decision will be made in two weeks.

On home appliance maker Dyson Ltd’s decision to cut ties with ATA IMS Bhd due to the latter’s labour practices, Saravanan said he was still waiting for a report from Dyson as he had heard “two different sides of the story”.

“However, we will investigate the cause of the termination of contract,” he said, admitting that Malaysian companies in five sectors, including the plantation and manufacturing sectors, were facing labour shortages.

During the launch of the action plan, he announced that the government had agreed to ratify the International Labour Organization’s Protocol 29, the protocol to the Forced Labour Convention.

“The government has also endorsed Malaysia’s participation as a Pathfinder country under the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Alliance 8.7,” he said.

He said one of the government’s initiatives to combat forced labour include the Working for Workers mobile application or WFW, an app that serves as an online platform for workers to file their complaints and grievances, including excessive overtime, withholding of wages, and abusive working and living conditions.

“To date, we have received almost 12,000 complaints and have been able to take action on 95% of the complaints,” he said.


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