The probe committee of the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment led by its Additional Secretary (Employment Wing) Noor Md Mahbubul Haq has received complaints from 3,000 workers, so far, for not being able to go to Malaysia.
Though the last working day of seven working days given to the probe committee was Monday, it has been given five more working days to finalise the report and submit it to Ministry and find out the reasons behind the large number of workers not being able to go to Malaysia.
Giving the information while talking to media at his office on Tuesday, State Minister for Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Shofiqur Rahman Choudhury said the Ministry will hold a meeting after Eid-ul Azha to analyze the report of the probe committee and take necessary measures.
Reposnding to a query about the progress of the probe body, the Minister said at his office, "We are taking reports from Malaysian immigration, 101 recruiting agencies which have sent migrants to the country, and BAIRA (Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies)."
"The investigation committee sought some more time. So, we gave them another five working days. After Eid, we will sit with the report. We would take action as per the findings of the body after the Eid," he assured.
He said, "The Prime Minister asked us to take stringent punitive measures against those responsible for the failure of sending huge number of migrants and the syndicate members who have charged additional money over the government fixed fees. Hope all of them will be identified in the probe report. We will take actions against all. No one will be spared whoever they are."
So far, 3,000 workers have complained about not being able to go to Malaysia to the probe committee, Shofiqur said.
"We want a transparent report to come out as we do not want any biased report. We are working so that they do not have to face such problems in the future," he added.
Despite receiving BMET clearance, around 17,000 aspiring migrants failed to fly to Malaysia within the deadline of May 31 announced by the Malaysian government which created uncertainty among the workers, according to the BAIRA leaders stated at a press conference recently.
However, a section of BAIRA leaders and members have claimed that though the number of migrants with valid documents is around 17,000, the actual number of victims is more than 50,000. The rests of the migrants haven got valid documents even after paying money to the syndicate members due to various reasons including not paying the enter demanded amount of money.
According to the victims, most of the 4.97 lakh migrants who have travelled to the South Asian country with employment has to pay more than Tk 4.5 lakh to the syndicate members comprising four sitting lawmakers including Benazir Ahmed, Nizam Uddin Hazari, and Masud Uddin Chowdhury against the government fixed fees of Tk 79,000.
They have shown various reasons for taking the money including providing trainings for the job and processing fees. Besides, a huge amount of money has been given to the middlemen who have introduced them to the recruiting agencies.
Some of the victims claimed that they have paid the entire amount to the agencies and their middlemen. But, they have received only the valid documents of the migration fees deposited to the agencies directly. They don have any documents of the rests including other expenditures.
As a result, they will not get the entire money back from the agencies and their agents as per the announcement of the government and the BAIRA leaders. They can only get the money deposited to the agencies, the victim overseas jobseekers claimed.
The Malaysian government suspended its foreign worker hiring programme temporarily from May 31 this year.
The migration sector experts claimed that the syndication and additional migration charge is behind the suspension.
