By IANS
Dhaka : The government has decided to withdraw two officials of its high commission’s labour wing in Kuala Lumpur for their alleged “inefficient handling” of stranded Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia.
The decision was taken on the basis of recommendations of a delegation that visited the Southeast Asian nation recently to probe the problems of the workers, The Daily Star reported Wednesday. The two officials were not named.
Hundreds of Bangladeshi workers duped by recruiting agencies at both ends were stranded in Kuala Lumpur. Of them, a hundred staged protest demonstrations and went on a hunger strike.
A worker, running high fever, died before being brought back home last week. His companions blamed the government and the high commission.
The decision to recall two officials was announced here Tuesday by Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury and acting secretary of the expatriates’ welfare ministry Abdul Matin Chowdhury.
Dhaka has taken up the matter with the Malaysian government, which has imposed a freeze on importing more Bangladeshi workers till the procedures followed by the recruiting agencies were sorted out.
Malaysia has agreed to take 347,000 workers from Bangladesh of which an estimated 197,000 have found jobs.
Dhaka has expressed the hope that the freeze would be temporary.
“It’s very important to improve the procedures of overseas employment. Codes of conduct of the Bangladeshi recruiting agents and Malaysian local agents should be changed,” a foreign advisor said.
Manpower export is a major foreign exchange earner for Bangladesh.
Besides the Gulf, Malaysia is a preferred destination for job seekers who follow both legal and illegal channels. Recruiting agencies and employers at times dupe them.
Quoting a letter sent to him by the Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to Malaysia M. Khaizuzzaman Tuesday, the foreign adviser said that the Malaysian government had made it clear that Kuala Lumpur would withdraw the freeze on hiring Bangladeshi workers after solving the problems among the workers, Bangladeshi recruiting agencies and Malaysian local agents.