Labour migration mess: Alliance of predatory syndicates, illegal visa trade blamed

Former Awami League lawmakers, including former finance minister Mustafa Kamal, their families alleged to have been involved in the process

Until 2008, Bangladeshi workers could get jobs in Malaysia paying recruiters fees ranging from as little as Tk1.80 lakh up to Tk2.20 lakh at most. But by May this year, that figure ballooned to Tk6 lakh – nearly three times as much – despite the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare capping the cost at Tk79,000.

For comparison, back in the 1980s, a Bangladeshi worker could migrate abroad for just Tk5,000 to Tk6,000.

According to insiders, around 18% of today’s migration costs – equivalent to about Tk1.10 lakh per worker – ends up in the hands of a syndicate of 100 recruiting agencies. This cartel, which didn’t even exist in Malaysia’s labour market 16 years ago, now wields significant influence.

Costs linked to illegal visa trading and middlemen have also skyrocketed, with increases of at least 88% and 114%, respectively, during this period. For those heading to Malaysia, the total cost goes up by 68%.

There are allegations that some of the largest instances of corruption in labour migration during the Awami League’s three consecutive terms occurred in Malaysia’s labour market. Sources from the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) estimate that a syndicate of 100 agencies syphoned off at least Tk14,000 crore till May this year since the market reopened in August 2022.

Recruiting firms linked to several former Awami League lawmakers, including former Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, and their families are alleged to have been involved in the process. Since the fall of the Awami League government on 5 August, many leaders of the syndicate are said to have either fled the country or gone into hiding.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) recently launched an inquiry against several high-profile figures including Mustafa Kamal’s wife, Kashmiri Kamal, their daughter Nafisa Kamal, and former MP Nizam Uddin Hazari – all of whom are allegedly linked to the Malaysian labour market racket.

Attempts by The Business Standard to reach Mustafa Kamal via phone and WhatsApp were unsuccessful. Efforts to contact his wife and daughter also yielded no response, as their phones remained unreachable. Similarly, former MP Nizam Uddin Hazari, retired Lieutenant General Masud Uddin Chowdhury, and Benjir Ahmed have all been unavailable by phone since the fall of the Awami League government.

In 2016, during the Awami League regime, a syndicate of 10 agencies controlled the Bangladesh labour market in Malaysia where the size of the corruption was estimated to have reached Tk6,000 crore that year.

Migration costs have steadily risen over the decades – from Tk5,000-Tk6,000 in the 1980s to Tk50,000 to Tk1.5 lakh in the 1990s and onwards, said Shamim Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, a former secretary general of Baira, citing a surge in overseas job-seekers that led to the emergence of visa trading and middlemen’s role that drove the costs higher.

Saudi Arabia and Malaysia account for over 39% of these overseas job destinations.

According to the World Bank, Bangladesh has some of the highest migration costs in the world. Rakesh Ranjan from the UK-based Institute of Human Rights and Business reported that in 2021, Bangladeshi workers spent 14% of their remittance earnings on repaying recruitment debts, compared to 9% for Indian workers and 3% for those from Nepal.

A 2020 survey of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics said the average migration cost for a Bangladeshi was Tk4.17 lakh, requiring a migrant worker to work 17.6 months to recover the cost. The cost is highest for Singapore and lowest for Oman.

Scourge of visa trading in the Gulf

In Saudi Arabia – the largest labour market for Bangladeshis – the situation is similar. Even though there is no formal syndicate, migration costs have surpassed Tk5 lakh per person – more than three times the government’s cap of Tk1.65 lakh. Though the cost has now dropped from the 2015 peak of Tk10 lakh, underlying problems persist, especially, rampant visa trading.

Several foreign embassies, including officials from Middle Eastern nations, have been implicated in these illegal practices.

In March 2023, Saudi authorities arrested individuals, including two former officials of their Dhaka embassy, on charges of corruption related to work visas involving around Tk154 crore.

Another Gulf nation, Oman, the third-largest market in the region, halted recruitment from Bangladesh in November last year citing allegations of illegal visa trading. The UAE and Bahrain both repeatedly closed doors for Bangladeshis over the past decade due to similar concerns. While the UAE continues to hire a limited number of workers, Bahrain has not reopened its market since 2016.

A “shameful” act in Kuwait 

An Awami League MP, Mohammad Shahid Islam alias Kazi Papul, and four others were jailed for four years in Kuwait in 2021 in a bribery case.

Papul was accused of bribing Kuwaiti officials with millions of dollars to recruit Bangladeshi workers and get contracts for his company.

On 6 June 2020, Kuwait’s Criminal Investigation Department arrested Kazi Papul from his residence and charged him with human trafficking, money laundering and bribing Kuwaiti officials.

According to allegations, Papul’s accomplices used to take Tk5-7 lakh from each migration labour after luring them with high-paying jobs in the oil-rich Middle Eastern country.

At that time, the Bangladesh Criminal Investigation Department (CID) found concrete evidence that Papul, his family and accomplices laundered Tk38.22 crore from Bangladesh. The amount laundered between 2016 and 2020 could be as much as Tk355 crore, it said.

Speaking to an English daily in June 2020, the then foreign minister AK Abdul Momen had said, “It’s a matter of regret and shame for us that an MP has been arrested on foreign land.”

Bangladeshis living in Kuwait said Bangladesh’s overseas labour market with some 300,000 Bangladeshi workers there already face setbacks and the conviction of Papul may contribute to the further deterioration of the market.

Despite the extent of these issues, the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare has not yet initiated an investigation into the manipulation.

Migration experts said most Bangladeshi workers in these countries are unskilled and employed in sectors such as construction, agriculture, services, domestic work, and manufacturing. Many spend between Tk5 lakh and Tk7 lakh to work 12 to 18 hours a day and struggle to send even Tk15,000 to Tk20,000 a month back home to feed families and repay debt.

Shariful Hasan, head of BRAC’s immigration programme, told TBS, “They [recruiters] are bringing Bangladeshis on three-month iqamas [residency permits] by setting up companies that exist only on paper.”

Hasan explained how this system works: “These companies issue labour demands, and then sell the demands to local brokers. The brokers, in turn, sell these demands to recruiting agencies in Bangladesh, advertising ‘free visas’. However, these so-called free visas come at a high price for the workers. Many arrive in Saudi Arabia, only to find no job awaiting them, and after three months, they become illegal residents.”

Experts say this practice isn’t limited to Saudi Arabia but is prevalent across all Middle Eastern countries. Workers spend significant sums of money to secure these so-called free visas, only to find themselves in precarious situations, often without the promised salary or employment opportunities.

How Malaysia syndicate came into play 

Baira estimates that about 4.76 lakh Bangladeshis who went to Malaysia between August 2022 and May this year were easy prey to the syndicate of 100 agencies dominated by the former Awami League lawmakers and their families.

The “syndicate” has its roots in a 2021 memorandum signed with the Malaysian government that selected just 100 recruiting agencies from Bangladesh’s pool of 2,500 agencies.

According to Baira’s Joint Secretary General Fakhrul Islam, syndicate people charged Tk1.52 lakh per worker bound for Malaysia. This included Tk10,000 for government fees and registration, while Tk1.07 lakh went directly into the pockets of the syndicate as extortion money. The recruiting agency within the syndicate received Tk35,000 per worker.

Manpower traders say workers had to pay an additional 6,000 ringgit (around Tk1.5 lakh) per visa. This sum was divided between the Malaysian recruiter, the broker responsible for the demand letter, and the syndicate managing the recruitment process in Malaysia.

Many workers who arrived in Malaysia by May this year paying even Tk6 lakh or more were without employment.

Mohammad Rashed Alam Bhuiyan, who teaches political science at Dhaka University and is a former research associate of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), said migration costs to Malaysia have nearly tripled since 2008 due to illegal visa trade and syndicate involvement.

Minister, senior bureaucrat, syndicate members sued

Earlier this month a case was filed against former expatriate welfare minister Imran Ahmed, former secretary to the same ministry Ahmed Munirus Saleheen and all members of the syndicate for their alleged involvement in embezzlement and human trafficking.

Altaf Khan, owner of a recruiting agency, filed the case with Paltan police station in Dhaka.

The son and daughter-in-law of Baira’s current president, Abul Bashar, are among the 100 syndicated agencies.

Bashar, who is also the former president of Dhaka Metropolitan North Jubo League, youth front of the Awami League, reportedly flew to Singapore for treatment before the fall of the Hasina regime and has not returned.

When contacted, Abul Bashar told TBS via WhatsApp, “This is a false case. Altaf will get money from one person and is suing everyone.”

Regarding the syndicate, he said, “It is the Malaysian government that determines which agencies can send workers. There is nothing we can do about it.”

He added, “I came to Singapore on 15 July for treatment. The doctor has not yet said when I will be released. I will return home as advised.”

Ruhul Amin Swapan, owner of Catharsis International and a former secretary general of Baira, is reportedly considered one of the masterminds behind the syndicate in the Malaysian labour market. However, he has repeatedly denied these allegations to the media.

Sources within Baira have confirmed that following the fall of the Hasina government, Ruhul has, like other syndicate leaders, disappeared. Calls to his mobile and WhatsApp have gone unanswered.

A Dhaka court has recently suspended the current Baira committee for failing to hold elections within the specified period and has directed the Ministry of Commerce to appoint an administrator there.

Fakhrul Islam, joint secretary general of Baira, told TBS, “Some of our election commission members who are linked to the Malaysian syndicate are no longer attending Baira meetings. Some of them are currently abroad.”