Malaysia starts probe on ‘syndication’ in recruitment of Bangladeshi workers
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has started an investigation into the allegations of 25 agencies' syndication in the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers.
On Tuesday, a MACC team visited the office of Bestinet, a Malaysian IT firm in Kuala Lumpur, involved in the manpower recruitment process, and interrogated the firm's boss Amin Nor over the issue, according to Malaysian media and diplomatic sources.
For the uninitiated, Datuk Seri Mohd Amin Abdul Nor alias Amin, founder and chairman of the aforementioned IT firm, is a Bangladeshi-origin Malaysian.
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The officials went to the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur later on the day.
They made queries about the role of the high commission in selecting the 25 agencies for recruiting migrant workers.
The investigation can cause some serious damage to Malaysia's reputation given numerous Malaysian industry players (particularly from the glove and plantation industries) had earlier been linked with forced labour allegations, reported Malaysian news portal Focus Malaysia.
He has been linked with alleged illegal operation of foreign workers' recruitment process in Malaysia or labour source countries.
The move comes a day after the youth wing of the People's Justice Party (PKR), a Malaysian political party, submitted a complaint with the MACC regarding the matter.
The Malaysian Human Resources Minister M Saravanan recently came under fire for selecting only a handful of companies for the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers.
The country is all set to resume sending workers to Malaysia this month, as issues relevant to the matter have finally been resolved in a joint working group meeting held on 2 June in Dhaka – seven months after the signing of a memorandum of understanding in this regard.
Bangladesh has left it up to Malaysia to decide how many agencies will send workers from Bangladesh to Malaysia.
As a result, as per Malaysia's proposal, a group of 25 recruiting agencies have been selected to send workers to that country, said the other Bangladeshi recruiters who have been protesting against this decision.
