The High Court on Sunday directed the government to take action by August 27 against recruiters who failed to send 17,000 Malaysia-bound aspirant migrants, despite receiving payments from them months before the Awami League regime鈥檚 ouster amid a student-led mass uprising on August 5, 2024.
The court also ordered the recruiters either to complete the process of sending them to Malaysia or to return the additional money they had collected from the aspirant migrants.
The expatriates鈥� welfare and overseas employment ministry submitted its compliance report to the High Court on July 15, 2024, following an earlier court order issued on July 9 by the bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice SM Masud Hossain Dolon.
The bench of Justice Fahmida Quader and Justice Mubina Asaf on Sunday set August 27 for the next hearing on a public interest litigation writ petition, which sought directions to the ministry to address the sufferings of Malaysia-bound workers, as highlighted in media reports.
Supreme Court lawyer Tanvir Ahmed filed the writ petition in June 2024, following reports that thousands of Bangladeshis were stranded at Dhaka and Kuala Lumpur airports during a last-minute rush before Malaysia closed its labour market on May 31, 2024.
Earlier, a probe committee formed by the expatriates鈥� welfare ministry recommended legal action against about 100 recruiting agents for their negligence and failure to send more than 17,000 migrants who had paid large sums of money to them.
Following the recommendations, the ministry served show-cause notices on the recruiters, asking them to explain their professional misconduct, according to the ministry鈥檚 official.
The ministry also ordered the agents to return the collected amounts to the migrants by July 18, 2024.
According to the ministry, a six-member probe committee led by an additional secretary (employment department) was formed on June 2, 2024 to investigate why 17,777 aspiring migrants failed to travel to Malaysia, despite each paying Tk 4 lakh to Tk 6 lakh to recruiting agents, far above the government-set rate of Tk 78,000.
Out of the 17,777 affected migrants, about 3,000 lodged formal complaints against the recruiters and demanded refunds.
The probe found that due to mismanagement and corruption in the recruitment process, the recruiting agencies failed to send the migrants before Malaysia鈥檚 May 31, 2024 deadline.