Activists and researchers say between 100,000 and 200,000 migrant workers from Bangladesh remain jobless, unpaid, or underpaid in Malaysia, because of excessive hiring since late 2022, according to a May 20 report in The Daily Star newspaper...

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), around 450,000 Bangladeshis migrated to Malaysia between August 2022 and May 31 this year to join 400,000 other compatriots who migrated in previous years.

Some 12 million Bangladeshis who work abroad send about US$25 billion a year as remittance, playing a vital role in the country's economy of nearly 170 million people.

Most migrants work in Middle Eastern countries...

A recent study by US-based non-profit Verite, published in May, said 96 percent of Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia reported facing risks of exploitation resulting from recruitment debt...

Corruption has been ingrained in the system since Malaysia formally started recruiting labor from Bangladesh in 1992 under an agreement preceded by a recruitment trial in the plantation sector in 1986...

When the malpractices, involving private agents, drew international attention, the country halted recruitment and extended an amnesty to migrant workers, allowing them to return home or get regularized...