Dhaka wanted to allow all 1,520 licenced recruiting agencies to send manpower to Malaysia, but Kuala Lumpur selected only 101 agents, which industry insiders say are involved in manipulation and exploitation of migrants.

A total of 16,970 migrant workers failed to reach Malaysia before the deadline of May 31 due to mismanagement by government authorities and local recruiting agents

Migrant workers, especially from Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and Nepal, make up about 80% of the workforce on Malaysia's labour-reliant estates

A Malaysian MP and two migrant rights bodies have urged Human Resources Minister M Saravanan to explain his decision for allowing only 25 Bangladeshi agencies to recruit workers for Malaysia, reported Malaysian daily Malay Mail yesterday. 

Bangladesh Civil Society for Migrants (BCSM) today called upon both Bangladesh and Malaysia governments to avert repeat of past mistakes including “syndication” that led to closure of the Malaysian market to Bangladeshi workers.

The resumption of Malaysia hiring Bangladeshi workers has become uncerztain amid recent political development of the Southeast Asian country.

Bangladesh has been sitting on a zero-cost labour recruitment offer that Malaysia made more than a year ago.

From now on, undocumented expatriate workers in Malaysia will be able to seek justice for any sort of exploitation by their employers or agents.

Over six lakh Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia may face deportation as the Southeast Asian country plans to reform its foreign workers sector, with an immediate step being the shutting down of its outsourcing companies by March 31.

A Bangladeshi man is sentenced to 10 years' jail and a stroke of the rotan by the Sessions Court in Malaysia for slashing his ex-girlfriend on the face.

The High Court yesterday directed the government to form an inter-ministerial committee to investigate the monopoly of 10 recruiting agencies, which had been engaged in labour recruitment from Bangladesh to Malaysia, and submit the probe report in six months.

Agents in Malaysia have swindled a huge sum of money from thousands of Bangladeshi workers in the Southeast Asian country, who, over the last two years, had applied to regularise their immigration status, victims and researchers said.

Foreign workers holding the Visit Pass -- Temporary Employment (PLKS) for the past 10 years will be given a reprieve to continue working in Malaysia, says the country's Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran.

Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam BSc tells the parliament that he would visit Malaysia soon to put an end to the harassment of Bangladeshi workers there.

The expatriates' welfare ministry will issue show cause notices to 10 recruiting agencies whose alleged monopoly in labour recruitment in Malaysia has led to the suspension of SPPA, an online system for recruitment of foreign workers, from September 1.

Police rescue 18 foreigner workers who have not been paid three months’ worth of wages at a vegetable processing and packing factory in Kampung Kepayang of Malaysia.

Some 270 Bangladeshi workers have allegedly been defrauded of over 1.8 million Malaysian ringgits (Tk 3.6 crore) by an agent over securing valid work permits under the Malaysian rehiring programme.