The government has initiated measures to send 18,000 workers, who were unable to travel to Malaysia within the stipulated time despite holding visas, by March and April, said Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Secretary Ruhul Amin on Wednesday.
“If the Malaysian government says they will take workers within 15 days, we will also send them within 15 days. Now everything depends on Malaysia,” he said while talking to the reporters at the Secretariat.
Asked about the ‘long process’, he said, "We hope that the way the talk is going on, it will not take too long. We hope to be able to fix everything in February. We can start sending workers in March-April.”
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The current government recently formed a committee and two meetings have taken place, yielding some progress, he said.
Replying to a question about the method of the process, Ruhul Amin said, “We hope to have another meeting at the end of February. We have been given all the information we need to give. They also shared their information with us. The way they approached us, they accepted a lot of things in principle. But everything is not finalised yet.”
Ruhul Amin went on to say, “We have made proposals, which they will approve after a ministry-level discussion. Then, the final process will begin. However, they agreed with us. The process will continue step by step.”
Earlier, in the day, vehicular movement at Karwanbazar remained suspended for nearly three hours as a group of stranded migrant workers staged demonstrations demanding government steps to ensure their return to Malaysia.
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The workers were supposed to travel to Malaysia through recruiting agencies on May 31, 2024 but due to ticket complications they were unable to travel.
On October 5, 2024, Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Adviser Dr Asif Nazrul said that Malaysia has agreed to receive 18,000 Bangladeshi workers who previously missed the deadline to enter the country.