KL to resume taking workers

KL to resume taking workers

DHAKA (Reuters): Malaysia is expected to resume taking in Bangladeshi workers next month after restricting foreign workers for nearly two years because of its economic crisis, Bangladesh's labor minister said on Monday.

"Malaysia will hopefully start providing jobs to our workers from next month," Minister for Labor and Manpower M.A. Mannan told Reuters in an interview.

"The workers will be given training before going to that country."

Malaysia stopped recruiting manpower from Bangladesh and other Asian countries in 1997 and declared 150,000 out of 300,000 Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia to be illegal.

"We will send 1,500 skilled workers in the first phase next month and the number will increase gradually," Mannan said.

He said 150,000 illegal Bangladeshi workers, employed mostly in Malaysia's construction sector, factories, plantations and hotels, were eventually legalized in 1997 and 1998.