Bangladesh’s new prime minister has asked Malaysia to consider reopening its labor market to Bangladeshi migrant workers, as he and his Malaysian counterpart pledged a broad expansion of economic relations.
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman made the request to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim during a meeting in Putrajaya yesterday. The visit, Tarique’s first since taking office in February, is intended to drum up investment and economic support, and will also involve a three-day state visit to China.
During a joint press conference, Tarique said he had asked Anwar to consider reopening the labor market to Bangladeshi workers as soon as possible, while also raising issues related to undocumented workers and the possible repatriation of detained Bangladeshis.
“We agree that recruitment should be transparent, fair, and affordable, reducing the role of intermediaries and lowering the cost of overseas employment,” he said, the South China Morning Post reported.
Bangladesh was for years a major source of migrant labor for Malaysia, and relies heavily on the remittances from overseas workers, which totaled more than $27 billion in 2024. But migrant worker advocates say that the industry has long been rife with practices such as debt bondage, forced labor, excessive recruitment fees, and scams that have seen workers stranded penniless in Malaysia.
This has prompted Malaysia to restrict the intake of Bangladesh workers on a number of occasions in the past. The most recent of these was in 2024, when after experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council highlighted the poor treatment of Bangladeshi workers.
The U.N. experts found numerous cases of workers who were left stranded over scams that promised jobs that were later found to be non-existent, and called on Malaysia “to take urgent measures to address the dire humanitarian situation of migrants and protect them from exploitation, criminalization, and other human rights abuses.”
Anwar told reporters that both countries had agreed to take measures to ensure transparency in the recruitment of workers and protect their welfare.
“This continued use of workers being exploited, ill-treated… solely for personal company gains cannot be tolerated,” he said, as per Reuters.
The joint statement released by the two sides after their meeting suggests a degree of Malaysian caution about the resumption of “business as usual” in migrant labor.
According to the statement Malaysia “acknowledged Bangladesh’s proposal regarding the recruitment of workers,” but it added that both sides “recognized that approvals for new foreign worker quotas are currently evaluated strictly on a case-by-case basis, contingent upon verified employer requirements and sectoral ceilings.”
This suggests that any intake of foreign workers from Bangladesh is likely to be limited and controlled, and that a full resumption of recruitment will require both nations to address years of debt bondage and abuse.
The SCMP reported that Malaysia accepted about 800 Bangladeshi workers between December 2025 and January 2026, after what it described as a “more stringent screening process.” The joint statement said that the two nations will soon convene a meeting of their Joint Working Group will convene soon to evaluate the current MoU on labor cooperation and begin to draft “a new, updated MoU that meets the current needs of both nations.”
Aside from the migrant labor issue, the two sides expressed their commitment to further strengthening cooperation in trade, investment, defense, and other areas, according to the joint statement. In particular, these agreed to press forward with talks on a free trade agreement, with a view to concluding the Agreement in 2027.” They also “underscored the importance of enhancing defense capacity and capability through courses and training programs.”
Tarique and Anwar also witnessed the exchange of several agreements, including collaborations on investment promotion, cultural cooperation, and counterterrorism.
