Malaysian Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M Saravanan on Wednesday said demand for Bangladeshi workers  is not as high as it used to be as some sectors have turned to other countries for their manpower needs. He is set to hold a final joint working committee meeting with the government in Dhaka on the recruitment of migrant workers on Thursday.

The minister also questioned the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira)’s criticism of Malaysia’s proposal to appoint only 25 Bangladesh Recruitment Agencies and 250 sub-agents.

“Baira should thank me that I increased it from 10 to 25,” he said, asking why they were not making similar demands to Singapore.

He noted that the number of agencies involved was formerly higher, and that there were several issues, but that regulating a lesser number was easier.

“I think Baira is trying to take advantage,” he told the reporters, adding that he would communicate his stance.

“I am not going to budge,” he added.Meanwhile, Baira called for the Malaysian government to allow all 1,530 of its members to send workers to Malaysia.

It claimed that Malaysia’s proposal to appoint only 25 Bangladeshi agencies and 250 sub-agents had stalled the hiring process, according to The Star.

Allowing only a small number of agencies to send workers to Malaysia, according to Baira's immediate past secretary-general Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, would create a monopoly or recruitment syndicate, raising migration costs and causing other irregularities, as seen previously under the old MoU, in which only 10 agencies were appointed.

This monopoly led to allegations of malpractice in the recruitment process including high costs faced by migrant workers to get jobs, leading the then Pakatan Harapan government to suspend the application for employment of Bangladesh foreign workers starting September 2018. The international community had also deemed that those recruited from Bangladesh until 2018 were victims of forced labour, owing to debt bondage.

“This led to Malaysian companies paying back worker recruitment fees to ensure they could continue to export products to the United States,” Shameem told the Star, adding that Bangladeshi workers were provided a refund of about RM18,000 (365,144tk) to RM20,000 (405,716tk) per person.

“We have experienced this most recently in 2018, so how come the same people are proposing the controversial and irregular system again?” he questioned.

Shameem also stated that Malaysia will not become a "dumping ground" for overseas workers, as Saravanan had previously claimed.

In January, Saravanan reportedly said that he only appointed 25 agencies and 250 sub-agents instead of the close to 1,600 agencies as Baira requested because he did not want Malaysia to be turned into a “dumping ground.”

“The Malaysian government has the ultimate power to decide on the number of employment visas to issue.“If the Malaysian authorities use the mechanisms that they have in place, how is it possible for us to turn Malaysia into a dumping ground?” Shameem asked.

Malaysia sourced employees from 13 countries, he added, but the restriction on recruitment firms applied solely to Bangladesh.“Why should there be a special system for Bangladesh?