10,000 Bangladeshi Workers Set to Go to Malaysia at Zero Migration Cost, With No Selection Date Set Yet

Ten thousand Bangladeshi workers are set to go to Malaysia at zero migration cost under a plan Bangladesh is preparing, with recruitment focused on their skills, experience and the requirements of Malaysian employers. Under the labour minister's plan, the workers are to be trained to employers' requirements before selection and sent through Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL) and other recruiting agencies. This guide is written for the construction workers, factory operators, plantation workers, supermarket staff and tradespeople weighing the move. For Metaintro readers, the practical detail comes from BOESL itself, which sets out how to register on the official BOESL job portal, how fees must be paid and how to recognise a fake Malaysia offer. Here is that detail, alongside what is still unsettled and why rights groups want a binding deal first.

What Did Bangladesh Announce About the Malaysia Jobs?

Labour and Employment Minister Ariful Haque Chowdhury, who also holds the expatriates' welfare portfolio, said Malaysia had agreed to receive 10,000 workers initially and that the process would begin with workers being sent free of migration costs. Officials added that priority would be given to sending the 10,000 workers through BOESL at zero migration cost.

Malaysian employers have begun issuing demand letters and enrolling workers in the Foreign Workers Centralised Management System (FWCMS) through levy payments, according to officials and recruiting agency owners, and the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur has started attesting those letters. Last week the mission attested a demand for 28 Bangladeshi workers from the Malaysian supermarket chain NSK Trade City under Goodness Services Limited.

The market was closed for Bangladesh on May 31, 2024, and Malaysia stopped accepting new migrant workers from multiple countries in 2024. Malaysia's home affairs ministry counts more than 800,000 Bangladeshis with active work permits in Malaysia, making Bangladesh the largest source of migrant labour in the country.

For a long time, people going abroad have faced different forms of harassment through syndicates, Labour and Employment Minister Ariful Haque Chowdhury said, according to The Daily Star report.

Who Will Be Selected, and What Skills Will Employers Want?

BOESL managing director Mohammad Rashedul Haque said workers with the required expertise, experience and fitness would be selected from among the 10,000, and BOESL wants to leave the selection criteria entirely to the recruiter.

A Malaysian delegation is expected to visit Bangladesh next week to discuss the types of workers, skills and experience required, and Rashedul said a clearer timeframe would emerge after the delegation's visit and once employers' demand became known.

For a sense of the work, migrant workers in Malaysia are routinely employed in labor-intensive and hazardous sectors, including construction, manufacturing, and plantation work. One attested demand is from a retailer, the NSK Trade City supermarket chain. In BOESL's earlier special scheme for listed workers who held valid visas but could not go to Malaysia, they were to go only through BOESL, after receiving training in the designated sectors (construction, tourism).

If you have worked a trade at home or abroad, keep proof of it ready. A BOESL profile asks for your educational qualifications, work experience, personal CV and photo, among other details, and BOESL's managing director said workers would be selected on expertise, experience and fitness.

What About Workers Still Waiting From the 2024 Closure?

Before sending new workers, BOESL plans to complete the migration of workers who could not travel to Malaysia before the market was closed for Bangladesh on May 31, 2024, and that process is expected to be completed by October 16. Around 120 to 150 of the previously stranded workers were still waiting to travel, a BOESL official said, and the agency would write to their employers to finish the process.

BOESL's September 2025 special initiative for listed workers who had completed all processes by May 31, 2024 was not free. It covered only the 7,873 listed workers who could not go, at a government-fixed migration cost of only Tk 1,62,500. That compares with the zero migration cost now pledged for the first 10,000 workers.

How Do You Register With BOESL?

Registration happens on the BOESL foreign recruitment portal, where the first step is to register for free. After that you apply for a job at the desired time and track the latest status of the application, with updates sent to your email and phone.

BOESL's application steps, from its general online application guide published in Bangla in November 2024 and not specific to Malaysia, are as follows (translated).

• Create an account. Open brms.boesl.gov.bd, click Register, and give your own name, mobile number and a password of your own choice.
• Verify your phone. Enter the OTP code received on the mobile, then log in with the same mobile number and password.
• Fill in your profile. Add your name, father's and mother's names, date of birth, passport information, marital status, address, personal CV, educational qualifications, work experience and photo.
• Apply for jobs that fit you. Click Start Applying and apply for jobs that match your qualifications.
• Pay the set fee online. After you apply, the set fee must be paid online through Nagad, bKash, debit card or credit card, after which your CV and invoice appear in the online system and you print them for the BOESL interview.

Recruiting agencies had yet to receive specific guidelines on when and how worker selection, medical examinations, training and other procedures would begin, so registering now gets your profile ready.

How Can You Spot a Malaysia Fee Scam?

BOESL warned in August 2025 that a dishonest ring was using its name to trap innocent people in fraud in the name of sending workers to Malaysia. BOESL lists these precautions (translated from Bangla). A recruiter asking for money upfront is also one of the biggest red flags in AI job scams.

• No middlemen. BOESL has no agent, sub-agent or representative in the recruitment process, so treat any agent offering a BOESL Malaysia slot as a warning sign.
• No fee to BOESL before final selection. No fee of any kind has to be paid to BOESL until a worker is finally selected.
• No cash. A selected candidate pays all fees and charges through a bank pay order, so refuse any cash deal.
• Official channels only. Follow overseas job news on boesl.gov.bd, BOESL's Facebook page and its YouTube channel, and apply under a posted notice at brms.boesl.gov.bd.
• Check before you pay. You can contact the BOESL office directly or the Probash Bondhu Call Centre on 16135.

BOESL's general application steps call for a set fee paid online after you apply, and its Malaysia rule is that no fee is due to BOESL until a worker is finally selected, with all fees paid through a bank pay order. For Malaysia, pay nothing to BOESL before final selection, pay any fee only by bank pay order after that, and never hand cash to a person.

Before the reopening, BOESL warned in September 2025 that some dishonest quarters might try to collect money from innocent workers by spreading the confusion that the Malaysian labour market had opened. The Malaysian labour market had reopened following discussions between the two countries, the labour minister said, so treat a demand for cash, not news of the reopening, as the warning sign. On October 1, the authorities sealed Human Diagnostic and Medical Centre on Box Culvert Road in Paltan after finding that it had been conducting medical tests and issuing reports for Malaysia-bound workers without approval, and there are currently 17 approved medical centres for Bangladeshi workers. Because the medical examination process had not yet been approved, be wary of any centre offering a Malaysia medical before the government publishes the process.

Where Does the 200,000 Figure Come From?

It is a Bangladeshi claim that Malaysia's government called unofficial. The claim was that Malaysia would recruit approximately 200,000 workers from Bangladesh over six months according to statements from the Bangladeshi government. Of those, 10,000 would go under a zero-cost pilot scheme managed by BOESL, The Rakyat Post reported. Bangladesh's local government, rural development and cooperatives junior minister Mir Shahe Alam made the statement.

Malaysia's ministers pushed back on Sept 2. The 200,000 claim does not represent the official position of the Bangladeshi government, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said. Human Resources Minister R Ramanan rejected the figure as one that did not reflect the country's current needs, and said intake will continue to be set by the actual requirements of industries and sectors, subject to the ceiling set by the economy ministry under the 13th Malaysia Plan.

The figure on the table from Dhaka is a 10,000 initial intake, which Bangladesh's labour minister described as agreed by Malaysia. Anyone selling you a place in a 200,000 quota is selling a figure that Malaysia's government called unofficial.

Why Do Rights Groups Want a Binding Labour Deal First?

Because, the groups say, previous arrangements failed to prevent excessive fees, wage theft and other abuses. Migrant Welfare Network (MWN) and Fortify Rights urged the two governments on September 30 to replace the existing non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a bilateral labour agreement carrying enforceable obligations. Unlike a non-binding MoU, such a deal should establish binding obligations between the two governments, the groups argued.

The December 2021 MoU replaced earlier arrangements signed in 2003, 2012 and 2016, and the rights groups say it required employers to cover airfare, immigration-related expenses, housing, and health and medical insurance, with a weekly day of rest and overtime pay for work exceeding eight hours a day, and compensation for workplace injuries.

In July interviews with 18 former Bangladeshi workers, the groups found widespread violations. A 22-year-old worker alleged he paid a broker Tk 570,000 in 2023, more than seven times the government-fixed recruitment fee, and that the agency made workers record a video saying they had paid only Tk 79,000. A 23-year-old construction worker from Noakhali, injured on the job after receiving no formal training, claimed he was still owed 16,000 Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) in wages after paying Tk 550,000 to a recruiting agency.

The issue has also drawn scrutiny from Bangladesh's anti-graft agency and UN experts. In September 2025, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed 13 cases against 31 people associated with recruiting agencies for allegedly embezzling Tk 1,159 crore through excessive fees charged to Malaysia-bound workers. In November 2025, UN human rights experts raised concerns about widespread fraudulent recruitment and exploitation in Malaysia, including allegations that a small group of recruiting agencies operated through a closed syndicate. Back in June, MWN alleged that many workers pay up to Tk6,00,000 to secure jobs in Malaysia, despite the officially approved migration cost being around Tk78,990.

What Bangladesh and Malaysia need is not another flawed MOU, but a legally binding bilateral labor agreement to avoid a repeat of such labor abuses and corruption, Fortify Rights director John Quinley said, according to The Daily Star rights report.

What Does Fair Recruitment Actually Require?

Under the International Labour Organization's general principles for fair recruitment, no recruitment fees or related costs should be charged to, or otherwise borne by, workers or jobseekers. The principles are non-binding and are meant to inform the work of the ILO, other organizations, national legislatures and the social partners on promoting and ensuring fair recruitment.

• A contract you can read. For migrant workers, written contracts should be in a language that the worker can understand, should be provided sufficiently in advance of departure from the country of origin, should be subject to measures to prevent contract substitution, and should be enforceable.
• Your passport stays yours. Workers' identity documents and contracts should not be confiscated, destroyed or retained.
• Free information. Workers should have access to free, comprehensive and accurate information regarding their rights and the conditions of their recruitment and employment.
• A way to complain. Workers should have access to free or affordable grievance and other dispute resolution mechanisms in cases of alleged abuse of their rights in the recruitment process, irrespective of their presence or legal status in a State.

What Pay and Protections Apply in Malaysia?

The RM1,700 minimum wage was set effective Feb 1, 2025 and applies to all workers in Malaysia except domestic workers. For foreign workers in the private sector, the wage council's guidance excluded domestic workers and those under apprenticeship contracts, and employers must pay the minimum even if the employee agrees to be paid a basic wage lower than the minimum wage. Section 69F of the Employment Act prohibits any form of discrimination between local and foreign workers, according to the wage council secretariat's FAQ. Employers with fewer than five employees, other than those in professional activities, had until Aug 1, 2025 to comply.

The government has been reviewing the RM1,700 minimum wage, and on Sept 29 it had yet to make a decision regarding the new minimum wage rate. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was earlier reported as saying the RM1,700 minimum wage rate is expected to be raised, with details to be announced during the tabling of the 2027 Budget on October 9. The Cabinet has also agreed to exempt micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) from further increases in minimum wage for the time being.

One former worker described spending 46 days at the Muar immigration detention centre after his employer failed to renew his permit, and Fortify Rights has calculated at least 140 deaths in Malaysian immigration detention since 2024. Keep copies of your permit and contract, and check renewal dates yourself.

What Is Still Not Settled?

The medical examination process had not yet been approved, and the government would provide details once arrangements were finalised. PMO spokesperson Mahdi Amin said some complications remained because of the existing memorandum of understanding and the structure put in place under the previous government.

Recruitment would be managed through 25 primary Bangladeshi agencies directly selected by Malaysia's Foreign Workers Centralised Management System, alongside 312 approved associate agencies, the Rakyat Post reported in the same story that carried the 200,000 claim, and Malaysian authorities stated the expanded agency network was designed to prevent monopoly syndicates. MWN alleged in June that Bangladesh is the only one of 14 source countries subjected to a restrictive model dominated by a small group of selected manpower agencies. Recruiting agencies had yet to receive specific guidelines on how selection would work.

What This Means for Bangladeshi Workers, and What Should You Do Next?

Our take is that a zero-cost pledge is good news for workers, and it is still only a promise. It sits on top of a non-binding MoU that, as the rights groups describe it, already put airfare, housing and insurance on employers, and the groups said interviews with 18 former workers showed widespread violations of those provisions. The safest stance is to get ready through official channels and refuse anyone who asks for money first.

Here is what we would do:

• Register on the official portal now. A free BOESL account lets you build your profile and get status updates by email and phone.
• Document your skills. Fill in your work experience and education in full, since BOESL's managing director said workers would be selected on expertise, experience and fitness.
• Pay nothing in cash. Selected candidates pay BOESL through a bank pay order, and the first batch is meant to go free of migration costs.
• Compare routes before paying anyone. Oman has also signed a pact for Bangladeshi farm and fisheries workers, so weigh both corridors before you pay anyone.
• Wait for the official medical process. Do not pay any clinic for a Malaysia medical until the government provides details once arrangements are finalised.
• Insist on a contract you can read before you fly. That is one of the ILO's fair recruitment principles.

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People Also Asked

Q: Is it free to go to Malaysia from Bangladesh under the new plan?

A: Bangladesh's labour minister said the process would begin with workers going free of migration costs, and officials said priority would be given to sending the 10,000 workers through BOESL at zero migration cost, with other recruiting agencies also taking part.

Q: How do I apply for Malaysia jobs through BOESL?

A: Register for free on the BOESL recruitment portal, complete your profile, and apply according to a posted notice, since agencies had yet to receive guidelines on when worker selection would begin.

Q: Is Malaysia hiring 200,000 Bangladeshi workers?

A: Malaysia's government said the 200,000 claim from a Bangladeshi junior minister does not represent the official position of the Bangladeshi government, and Bangladesh's labour minister said Malaysia had agreed to receive 10,000 workers initially.

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