Migrant workers' network urges PM to break Malaysia recruitment syndicates

A network of current and former migrant workers has urged Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to take decisive action against recruitment syndicates exploiting Bangladeshi labourers in Malaysia, as he prepares for his first official state visit to the country next week.

The Migrant Welfare Network submitted a formal letter to the Prime Minister's Office today (17 June), demanding a comprehensive overhaul of migration governance. The appeal followed a human chain demonstration staged by the group in front of the National Press Club in the capital. 

Niranjan, a Malaysia returnee and a member of the network, confirmed the developments to The Business Standard.

In the letter, network described the Bangladesh-Malaysia migration corridor as one of the most economically significant labour migration routes in Asia, yet one that, in the group's words, continues to operate under a lawless syndicate system enabling exploitation, monopolisation and impunity.

The organisation is pressing the Prime Minister to use the high-profile visit as an opportunity to push for structural reforms that would protect Bangladeshi workers from systematic abuse at the hands of recruitment networks long alleged to operate with little accountability.

The organisation highlighted widespread corruption, debt bondage, forced labour, and systemic human rights violations faced by Bangladeshi workers throughout the migration process. 

It alleged that despite Malaysia recruiting workers from 14 source countries, Bangladesh remains the only one subjected to a restrictive model dominated by a small group of selected manpower agencies.

The network alleged that the syndicate-based system has artificially inflated migration costs and trapped thousands of workers in debt bondage for years. Many workers pay up to Tk6,00,000 to secure jobs in Malaysia, despite the officially approved migration cost being around Tk78,990. To finance the journey, many take high-interest loans or mortgage family assets, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.

"Without dismantling the syndicate system, no reform will be sustainable in this migration corridor. The syndicate system remains the central driver of corruption, worker exploitation, excessive migration costs and repeated governance failures," reads the letter. 

In its letter the network laid out a broad set of demands, urging the government to replace the existing Bangladesh-Malaysia Memorandum of Understanding with a binding Bilateral Labour Agreement, eliminate recruitment syndicates from the migration process, regularise undocumented Bangladeshi workers currently in Malaysia, recover unpaid wages owed to exploited workers, end passport confiscation and forced labour practices, strengthen consular services at the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur and establish a transparent grievance mechanism directly under the Prime Minister's Office

The organisation also stressed that piecemeal measures would fall short without structural dismantling of the syndicate network that has long dominated the corridor.