Joy for some, frustration for others Belal Hossain Biplob; The Bangladeshi workers who migrated to Malaysia under state arrangement to work in the plantation sector have started remitting their incomes back home. “I am very happy to be working here as I have to work for only eight hours a day,” said Abdul Kader, who now works in a palm garden. He added that there are overtime facilities if the shifts go beyond 2:30pm, which brought him 300 ringgit on top of his fixed salary of 900 ringgit a month, which is equivalent to Tk 25,000, in his first pay packet on June 6. “My parents are very happy as they can now meet our family’s expenses with the amount I send back,” said one Alim hailing from Manikganj, who works with Kader at the palm garden. Some other workers, too, expressed their delight in being able to contribute to their families’ expenditures. However, it is not all happy days for all of the 10,000 workers who were selected by the government for plantation jobs at the Southeast Asian nation. Kader and Alim were among the inaugural batch, of 198, to leave for Malaysia on April 25. But for the remaining 9,802 workers, their time has yet to come; they are yet to leave Bangladesh. Preferring anonymity, an official of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) said the process is being delayed as the Malaysian employers have identified some flaws in the recruitment system. Atiqur Rahman, high commissioner of Bangladesh in Malaysia, however, categorically denied it. “There is no hindrance to our workers coming here. The process now depends on our part, if we can complete it soon enough,” he told. Begum Shamsunnahar, director general of BMET, who recently returned from Malaysia, added that the process is being delayed as some information on the workers remains to be updated. “We have submitted the required papers needed to confirm the visas of 5,800 workers. Now, the Malaysian employers are checking those and then the process resumes.” On November 26 last year, the Malaysian government decided to recruit Bangladeshi workers under state arrangements, lifting a ban that lasted for four years. Later, both the countries signed a memorandum of understanding for the resumption of the Bangladeshi workers’ recruitment without the intervention of middlemen.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:59:15 +0000
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