Bangladesh starts sending 2 lakh workers to Malaysia from Sept

Bangladesh will begin sending 200,000 workers to Malaysia in phases from the end of September, with the process expected to be completed within six months, a government official said on Sunday.

State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Mir Shahe Alam disclosed the timeline after a meeting between Malaysian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Mohd Suhada Bin Othman and Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives Minister Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan at the Secretariat in Dhaka.

“The manpower export from Bangladesh will begin in phases by the end of September and will be completed within the next six months,” the state minister told reporters after the meeting.

Of the 200,000 workers, the minister said, the majority would be recruited through Malaysian-listed companies.

Malaysia will also recruit an additional 10,000 Bangladeshi workers under a zero-cost arrangement, meaning the workers will not have to bear recruitment-related expenses, he said.

“This will also begin gradually towards the end of September,” Mir Shahe Alam said.

The move could provide a major boost to Bangladesh’s overseas employment sector, which relies heavily on labour migration to generate remittance earnings.

The state minister said around 800,000 Bangladeshi workers are currently registered in Malaysia, while some others remain unregistered. He said the Bangladeshi government had requested the Malaysian authorities to facilitate the registration of undocumented Bangladeshi workers.

The two sides also discussed broader cooperation between Bangladesh and Malaysia, including education and people-to-people ties.

Around 10,000 Bangladeshi students are currently studying in Malaysia, while about 1,000 Malaysian students are studying at medical colleges in Bangladesh, including Dhaka Medical College and Mymensingh Medical College, the state minister said.

Asked whether the meeting discussed Bangladesh’s request to import LNG from Malaysia, he said the issue did not come up during the talks.

The planned recruitment is expected to reopen a significant labour migration route for Bangladeshi workers and create fresh employment opportunities in Malaysia.