Dhaka: Malaysia has announced to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh to resume the recruitment of Bangladeshi labours after a long-running negotiatio,.

A meeting of the Malaysian cabinet on December 10 decided to reopen recruitment of Bangladeshi workers to all sectors including plantation, agriculture, manufacturing, services, mining, construction and household service.

Malaysian Minister of Human Resources Seri Saravanan Murugan will sign an MoU with Bangladesh's Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmed in this regard soon, said a media release of the Malaysian Ministry of Human Resource.

"Admission of these Bangladeshi workers will be implemented immediately after the MoU is signed," read the media release.

Malaysia is home to around eight lac Bangladeshis, according to reports.

Earlier, in 2018, Malaysia suspended hiring Bangladeshi workers over allegations of malpractices in the recruitment process and high recruitment costs. Since then, the Bangladeshi expatriate ministry has been negotiating continuously with the Malaysian authorities to reopen the market.

The manpower recruiters are expecting that the number of Bangladeshi workers going to Malaysia will increase compared to earlier times after the later reopens its labour market.

"Before closing the market, around 10,000-15,000 workers went to Malaysia each month. Now, 20,000-30,000 workers will migrate to Malaysia in the coming months as their employers need a large number of foreign workers," said Abul Bashar, former president of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA).

"Earlier, workers were sent to Malaysia through only 10 agencies. There were many irregularities at that time, as a result of which that country stopped taking workers from Bangladesh," he added. However, the manpower recruiters have been demanding that the authorities allow all the recruiting agencies to send workers to Malaysia.

In a statement on December 4, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) said the country needs over six lac foreign workers by 2022 for the industrial sector, especially the export-based companies, to overcome the current acute manpower shortage it is facing.

On the other hand, Malaysia has identified Bangladesh as a second source country for migrant security guards, after Nepal, based on an earlier MoU signed between the countries.

Malaysian Ministry of Human Resource will cooperate with its health ministry and National Security Council to refine standard operating procedures (SOP) for the admission of foreign workers' to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The Malaysian cabinet also agreed to defer the implementation of a multi-tier levy from January 1, 2022 to July 1, 2022.