MOVE TO REGAIN JOB MARKET High-level visit to Malaysia begins today

The government is sending today a high-level team to Malaysia in an effort to regain access for Bangladeshi workers to the job market in that country, which has kept suspended recruitment of Bangladeshi workers since September last year. 
The team, led by State Minister for Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Irnran Ahmad, is scheduled to go on a five-day visit to Malaysia from today for bilateral talks on the issue, said senior officials in Dhaka and Kuala Lumpur.
They said that Dhaka was trying heart and soul to restore access of Bangladesh workers to the Malaysian labour market first and then to explore the possible job opportunities in its Sarawak province, which is emerging as an important job destination for migrant workers.
Asked, labour counsellor at the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur Mohammad Zahirul Islam told New Age over phone on Friday that the bilateral talks between Bangladesh and Malaysia would be held on May 14. 
During the meeting, the Bangladesh team would request the Malaysian authorities to quickly resume recruitment of workers from Bangladesh, they said.
The Bangladesh delegation, besides the EWOE ministry’s state minister, will include Bangladesh High Commissioner in KL Md Shahidul Islam, Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training director general Salim Reza and EWOE ministry’s additional secretary Dr Ahmed Munirus Saleheen at the meeting.
Officials said that job opportunities for Bangladeshi workers were shrinking in the Middle Eastern and North African countries day by day due to unrest and economic rescission in those countries.
Hundreds of Bangladeshi workers are coming back home empty handed for not getting jobs in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq and Libya, they said.
Malaysia has, therefore, become the best alternative destination for unemployed Bangladeshi workers, they said, adding that ‘reopening of the Malaysia market is more urgent than taking action against the [manpower] syndicate’.
After having bilateral talks with Malaysian human resource minister M. Kulasegaran, the Bangladesh state minister and his team would hold discussion with the chief minister and the governor of Sarawak province with a view to exploring job market there for Bangladeshi workers.
Sarawak is a special administrative zone of Malaysia which enjoys autonomy as regards its rule of governance, said officials in Dhaka.
Bangladesh High Commission officials said that Malaysia froze recruitment of workers from Bangladesh in September last as the country was going to introduce a uniform system for recruiting foreign workers.
According to Malaysian media, a large number of undocumented Bangladeshi workers were arrested by the Malaysian immigration authorities in major crackdowns on undocumented workers from all the foreign countries from July last year.
Currently, over eight lakh Bangladeshis work in Malaysia, according to the BMET.

News Courtesy: www.neagebd.net