Malaysia to accept Bangladesh workers

Malaysia to accept Bangladesh 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 said in an interview.

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.

Mannan said Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina persuaded her Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohammad to review his government's overseas labor recruitment policy and resume employment of Bangladeshi workers.