A Malaysian team based in Dhaka is now working alongside Bangladeshi officials to oversee the deployment of 15,000 workers, marking a concrete step in the reopening of Malaysia’s labour market to Bangladeshi migrants after more than two years of suspension.
Technical-Level Coordination Underway
The oversight effort follows an announcement from Prime Minister’s Adviser and spokesperson Mahdi Amin, who confirmed in late July that Malaysia had agreed to resume recruiting Bangladeshi workers across all sectors starting the last week of August. Technical-level coordination between the two countries is now proceeding jointly through the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur and the Malaysian High Commission in Dhaka, with the current placement push forming an early phase of that broader rollout.
BOESL Given First Priority
As recruitment resumes, the state-owned Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited is set to be given priority during the initial phase, ahead of private recruiting agencies. Malaysia is expected to determine how many of the 423 agencies submitted by Bangladesh under the existing memorandum of understanding will be approved to participate, with that MoU remaining valid through December.
A Market Reopening After Years of Disruption
Malaysia’s labour market has been effectively closed to fresh Bangladeshi recruitment since June 1, 2024, after allegations of large-scale irregularities involving a syndicate of roughly 100 recruiting agencies. Nearly 500,000 workers who migrated between August 2022 and the closure reportedly paid recruitment fees far above the officially set cost, and the two governments have since worked to reform the process ahead of any reopening. Officials have also flagged a lingering backlog of thousands of previously approved workers who were left stranded when the market shut, a separate issue that authorities have been addressing in phases over the past year.
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Why the Push Now
The renewed urgency also reflects shifting conditions in the wider overseas labour market. Ongoing conflict in the Middle East has slowed hiring in traditional destinations such as Saudi Arabia, prompting Dhaka to prioritise reopening Malaysia and to look at other markets to sustain both employment opportunities and remittance flows. Reopening this corridor is seen as one way to offset that Gulf-market slowdown.
With the placement of the first 15,000 workers now under direct oversight from the Malaysian mission in Dhaka, the coming weeks are likely to focus on finalising which recruiting agencies are cleared to participate and how quickly the promised transparency measures — including lower migration costs and fewer intermediaries — are put into practice as the broader labour corridor reopens.
Summary: A Malaysian team stationed in Dhaka is working with Bangladeshi authorities to oversee the deployment of 15,000 workers, forming part of the wider resumption of Malaysia’s labour market for Bangladeshi migrants, which is set to restart in the last week of August.
