Malaysia-Bangladesh MoU not affected by freeze

PUTRAJAYA: The decision to freeze recruitment of foreign workers from all source countries, including Bangladesh will not affect the validity of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Malaysian and Bangladesh governments in Dhaka on Thursday, said Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot.

He said the ministry welcomed the statement by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on the intake freeze as it was a positive move.

“It clearly reflects the government’s priority in providing employment opportunities for local workers.

“Further details on the decision to freeze foreign workers recruitment will be announced by the government,” he said in a statement here yesterday.

On Thursday, Riot and Bangladesh Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam signed the MoU in Dhaka that provides for Malaysia to recruit Bangladeshi workers in stages over the next five years and it would be subject to a review after that period. The Gto-G (government-to-government) MoU was also stricter as potential Bangladeshi workers would be vetted for criminal activities and subjected to health screening before they were permitted to enter and work in Malaysia.

However on Friday, Ahmad Zahid announced that the government had put on hold recruitment of all foreign workers, including those from Bangladesh to enable the government to review the revised two-category levy on foreign workers and also focus on the foreign worker rehiring programme.