KL to recruit 10,000 by next year

Malaysia will hire 10,000 Bangladeshi workers by next year for its plantation sector, not 1.4 million as interpreted by some Malaysian newspapers.The country’s Deputy Human Resources minister Ismail Abd Muttalib yesterday clarified this in parliament when a lawmaker asked him about the number of Bangladeshis to be hired.The confusion was created when some Malaysian dailies last month reported that the country would start hiring 1.4 million Bangladeshis in phases from 2014, misinterpreting a visiting Bangladeshi minister who said 1.4 million Bangladeshis had applied for the jobs.“The 1.4 million is actually the number of Bangladeshis who applied to their government to seek jobs overseas,” reports Malaysian English daily The Star quoting Muttalib as saying.He added the government was actually seeking to bring in 10,000 Bangladeshi workers to work in oil palm plantations in Peninsular Malaysia.“As of September 23, a list of 8,703 applicants was provided by the Bangladesh government to police and Immigration Department. From these, 2,288 have been filtered and 75 were found to have criminal records,” he said.Ismail said recruitment of workers from Bangladesh was stringent and only three out of 10 companies that had applied for workers had received approval.“We approved 200 workers for Sime Darby Plantations, 262 for UP Plantations and 683 for Kulim Plantations, bringing the total number of Bangladeshi workers approved [so far] to 1,145,” he said.Contacted, Bangladesh High Commissioner in Kuala Lumpur AKM Atiqur Rahman said he had conveyed to the Malaysian deputy human resources minister that it was really a misinterpretation of some local newspapers.“During a visit to Kuala Lumpur last month, our expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment minister informed the Malaysian minister that more than 1.4 million Bangladeshis had registered for jobs abroad,” he told The Daily Star over the phone.The envoy could not immediately clarify the Malaysian minister’s statement on 75 jobseekers having criminal records.He however claimed those candidates might have tried to enter Malaysia illegally and their records were with the Malaysian authorities.