Malaysia Announces Measures to Enhance Rights of Bangladeshi Migrant Workers

PUTRAJAYA — Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim pledged stronger protections for Bangladeshi migrant workers on Monday, following a series of labor abuses affecting the Southeast Asian nation’s largest foreign workforce.

Around 800,000 Bangladeshis work in Malaysia, making up a third of the country’s migrant workforce. Many have faced unpaid wages and recruitment scams that left job seekers stranded after paying hefty fees. “This continued use of workers being exploited, ill‑treated… purely for personal or company gains cannot be tolerated,” Anwar said at a joint press conference with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.

Rahman, on his first foreign trip since his election in February, urged that recruitment be made “transparent, fair and affordable” with a reduction in intermediaries.

Late last year, UN human rights experts warned of “continued exploitation, deception, and deepening debt bondage” facing Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia, urging both governments to hold fraudulent recruitment agencies accountable.

Rahman is set to depart for China later Monday, bypassing neighboring India. Relations with New Delhi have been strained since the 2024 uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina’s government — an ally of India — and the subsequent extradition request for Hasina, who has been in hiding in India. Bangladesh’s first trip abroad going to Beijing rather than Delhi reflects the shifting regional balance, as the world’s two most populous countries compete for influence in South Asia.

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