BANGLADESH’S business news portal The Business Post headlined a damning leak late yesterday (July 5) of a raid by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on Bestinet Sdn Bhd office in Kuala Lumpur and interrogated “Malaysian syndicate mastermind Amin several times to know his involvement in selecting 25 Bangladeshi recruiting agencies for hiring workers from Bangladesh to Malaysia”.
If the claim is true, the exposé which cited a diplomatic source can be a major slapped on the face for Malaysia’s reputation given numerous Malaysian industry players (particularly from the glove and plantation industries) have earlier been linked with forced labour allegations.
For the uninitiated, “Amin” is likely the founder and chairman of the IT solutions firm whose full name is Datuk Seri Mohd Amin Abdul Nor. He has been linked with alleged illegal operation of foreign workers recruitment process in Malaysia or labour source countries.
As FocusM seeks confirmation of the raid from MACC, the Dhaka-based news portal further learnt that a number of officials at the Bestinet office were arrested for their alleged involvement in syndication to recruit workers from Bangladesh to Malaysia.
“Later, MACC officials went to the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur on the same day. They asked questions about the role of Bangladesh High Commission in selecting the 25 agencies,” the news portal pointed out.
“Besides, the anti-graft officials also sought to know the basis or yardsticks of selecting the 25 agencies in question.”
The anti-graft officials also enquired the Bangladesh High Commission official whether they have any official documents regarding the 25 recruiters.
Contacted, Bangladesh’s Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad rejected the 25-member syndicate outright, saying that Bangladesh had not sent any list of 25 members to Malaysia.
The Business Post said it was informed by Minister (Labour) at the Bangladesh High Commission in Malaysia, Md Nazmus Sadat Salim that MACC officials did visit the high commission.
“They wanted to know whether we had written any letter to the Malaysian Human Resources Ministry to provide the list of 25 agencies. We said we provided a list of over 1,500 agencies. We also said we are not involved in the selection of the 25 agencies,” he told the business news portal.
Amid the situation in Malaysia, some Bangladeshi agencies have already collected the passports of aspiring migrants, according to The Business Post.
“Some medical centres have also started medical tests of the migrants by violating the government directive. They are also over-charging migrants for the tests,” added the business news portal. – July 6, 2022
