State minister for expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury on Saturday said that legal action would be taken against those responsible for the crisis in sending workers to Malaysia before the expiry of the May 31 deadline fixed by the Malaysian authorities.
‘A committee will be formed to investigate into the reasons for not being able to send workers to Malaysia,’ he said.
The remarks came from the state minister in the afternoon while he was talking to journalists after attending a programme at Sylhet Government Alia Madrassah in the city.
He also said that the Bangladesh embassy in Malaysia and the ministry were working to solve this problem. ‘Disciplinary action will be taken against those who are involved in creating the crisis,’ the state minister said.
He said that the Malaysian government offered a quota to receive more than 5,00,000 workers from Bangladesh and the government had been working to fulfil that quota.
The state minister further said that the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies, an organisation of recruiting agents, was asked to provide the data regarding who failed to complete the visa proceedings but the BAIRA failed to give that list.
The Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training statistics showed that at least 31,000 migrants failed to fly to Malaysia even after getting Malaysian visa following due process, primarily for the flight crisis.
Several thousand aspiring migrants, desperately trying to obtain air tickets even at the last minute, could not fly to Malaysia for air ticket crisis on Friday.
Malaysia earlier announced that they would not allow any foreign workers after the deadline. Â
Bangladesh estimated to send some 5,00,000 workers to Malaysia when its job market reopened in August 2022 after four years’ suspension.
Shafiqur Rahman said that the government urged Malaysia to extend the time of arrival but they did not answer.
BAIRA secretary general Ali Haider Chowdhury without mentioning any figure said that only few aspirant migrants could not fly.
He said that migration is an issue of two countries.
‘We want to send all our workers but they did not want to accept,’ he said adding that only government initiatives can solve it.
