"Zero-Cost Migration of Workers: Dhaka sits on Malaysian offer", 25 January 2020

Bangladesh has been sitting on a zero-cost labour recruitment offer that Malaysia made...

According to the offer, Malaysian employers will pay visa fees, airfares, medical screening costs, recruitment agency commissions and levies for Bangladeshi job seekers -- a system that falls under the UN convention on migrant workers.

Following a zero-cost labour recruitment pact with Nepal in October, 2018, Malaysia said it would sign a similar deal with Bangladesh.

But since then, Dhaka has not taken any concrete steps to secure the deal with Malaysia...

One of the measures would be the elimination of brokers from the recruitment process, as the brokers, with their strong presence at home and abroad, often cheat and abuse workers and make them pay exorbitant migration cost, they said.

Bangladesh, however, is yet to have a law that eliminates brokers from labour recruitment or brings them under legal jurisdiction so that they can be held accountable in case of fraudulence or abuse.

...Many workers were recruited at bogus companies, while many got wages less than that was agreed upon -- factors that forced many migrants to become undocumented and work elsewhere...