Malaysian team in Dhaka to finalize Bangladeshi workers, screening underway
Mohammad Rashedul Haque, Managing Director of BOESL, at a press briefing held at the agency’s office Thursday morning. Photo: Agamir Somoy.
The recruitment process of Bangladeshi workers for Malaysia's DHL Supply Chain company at zero migration cost has begun. A nine-member delegation of the company has come to Dhaka to select the final workers from among 300 initially shortlisted candidates.
Practical examinations and interviews started on Thursday morning. After verifying professional skills and suitability for the position, 112 workers will be finally selected.
Managing Director of Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL) Mohammad Rashedul Haque disclosed this information at a press briefing held at the BOESL office on Thursday morning.
Discussions have been ongoing between the two countries for a long time regarding sending Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia.
Earlier, in the context of allegations of irregularities in the recruitment process, excessive migration costs, debt burdens, and worker exploitation, Malaysia imposed restrictions on recruiting Bangladeshi workers from 2024.
After that, discussions were held between the two countries in phases regarding reopening the labor market. On June 22 of this year, during a visit to Malaysia, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman requested Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to quickly reopen the labor market and recruit more Bangladeshi workers.
At the briefing at the BOESL office, the organization's Managing Director Mohammad Rashedul Haque said that this recruitment process is being conducted officially at completely zero migration cost. The Malaysian recruiting company will bear all government-fixed migration-related expenses of the selected workers.
"Malaysia is the second largest labor market for Bangladesh. According to the current government's election manifesto, aiming to create more employment abroad, BOESL is working to ensure safe, ethical, and skilled migration at low and zero migration costs," he added.
According to him, transparency, neutrality, and professional qualifications are being given the highest importance at every stage of the recruitment process.
Regarding the opening of the Malaysian labor market, the government has been saying from the beginning that an initiative has been taken to send a total of 10,000 workers to the country at completely zero migration cost. This program will be implemented in phases subject to demand.
Rashedul Haque said that on November 2, a demand letter for worker recruitment was received from Malaysia's DHL Supply Chain (Malaysia) SDN BHD.
In light of this, a recruitment circular was published online on November 5. Applications were accepted from 10 am on November 6 to 4 pm on November 8. A total of 4,029 applications were submitted within the stipulated time.
According to BOESL's information, from the applications received until 4:30 pm on November 8, 300 people were initially selected for two positions through an online software lottery.
Among them, 200 are for the Operations Assistant position and 100 for the Technical Skill Worker position.
From among the 300 initially selected candidates, 112 will be finally selected after verifying professional skills, practical ability, and suitability for the position.
The nine-member delegation from Malaysia will conduct practical examinations and interviews directly from Thursday until November 15.
BOESL said it is not interfering in any way in the selection process. Only the candidates selected by the recruiting organization will be considered final.
BOESL's Managing Director said this recruitment process is being conducted at completely zero migration cost.
The Malaysian recruiting company will bear all government-fixed migration-related expenses of the selected workers. It was informed at the press conference that BOESL will not take any kind of migration cost or service charge from the recruiting organization or the workers.
