Anti-corruption groups call for Bangladesh-Malaysia MoU on recruiting migrant workers to be made public
They called the governments of the two countries to take preventive measures against all possible corruption, including syndicate control in the recruitment process
The Bangladesh and Malaysia chapters of Transparency International, a Berlin-based global corruption watchdog, have jointly called to release the details of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on 19 December 2021 between the two countries on the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers for Malaysia.
In a joint press release, they called the governments of the two countries to take preventive measures against all possible corruption, including syndicate control in the recruitment process.
Citing recent media reports from both the countries, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) and Transparency International Malaysia (TIM) expressed concern that a section of Bangladeshi recruitment agencies is trying to manipulate the recruitment process of migrant workers with the help of their Malaysian partners.
In this situation, the two governments have failed to disclose the content and terms of the memorandum, TIB and TIM said in the press release.
The press release said, "The confidentiality contradicts both the governments' national and international commitments to control corruption and establish the right to information. Not only that, the reluctance to disclose information about the agreement is creating an opportunity for the potential recruitment process to fall into the hands of a handful of recruiting agencies."
Mentioning recent media reports it said, despite having more than 1,500 legal recruiting agencies in Bangladesh, only 25 influential agencies and 10 sub-agents under each of them have been allowed to send workers from Bangladesh to Malaysia.
Iftekharuzzaman, executive director, TIB, and Muhammad Mohan, president, TIM, in a joint statement, said, "The confidentiality of the MoU content will not only violate the mandatory provisions of the open and fair competition process of agency selection but also limit the scope for accountability and increase the costs of Bangladeshi migrant workers and their Malaysian employers."
