Foreign employment and recruitment associations from Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Pakistan have jointly raised serious concerns over alleged moves towards syndication, monopoly and private control in Malaysia’s foreign worker recruitment system, warning that selective access could undermine competition and inflate migration costs.

In a joint statement issued on August 27, the associations particularly raised concerns over reported arrangements surrounding Malaysia’s Foreign Worker Centralized Management System (FWCMS).

The statement was signed by representatives of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA), Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Association (MOEAA) and Pakistan Overseas Employment Promoters Association (POEPA).

The associations warned against any arrangement giving exclusive or preferential access to a limited number of private companies or recruiting agencies while excluding other legally licensed operators.

Such a system, they said, would raise serious questions over “fair competition, transparency, equal opportunity and the rights and interests of migrant workers”.

“Foreign employment is not the private property of any individual, company or group,” the statement said, stressing that the sector directly affects millions of migrant workers, their families, national economies and bilateral labour relations.

The four associations urged the Malaysian government and relevant authorities in the labour-sending countries to immediately clarify the legal and institutional basis of any arrangement governing access to FWCMS and related recruitment processes.

They demanded transparency over eligibility criteria, selection mechanisms, legal authority, contractual arrangements and the relationship between the system operator and selected recruiting agencies.

The warning comes at a sensitive time for Bangladesh as Dhaka seeks to resume worker deployment to Malaysia amid continuing debate over how recruiting agencies would be selected for the lucrative labour market.

The associations said no private organisation should be allowed to turn a national foreign worker recruitment mechanism into a system under its exclusive commercial control.

They also called for an impartial review and, where necessary, investigation into arrangements that could prevent legitimate agencies from accessing recruitment opportunities on an equal basis.

All legally licensed recruiting agencies should receive “fair, transparent, non-discriminatory and equal access” to the recruitment system, they said.

The four organisations pledged to work collectively against syndication, monopoly, discriminatory access, anti-competitive practices or undue private control in Malaysia’s foreign employment recruitment sector.

They also warned that they would pursue “all appropriate institutional, diplomatic and lawful measures” to protect fair competition, migrant workers’ interests and the integrity of the recruitment sector.

The joint declaration adds a regional dimension to longstanding concerns surrounding Malaysia’s foreign worker recruitment mechanism, with recruitment bodies from four major labour-sending countries now collectively challenging any attempt to concentrate market access in the hands of a limited group.

For Bangladesh, where previous recruitment arrangements for Malaysia have faced allegations of syndication and excessive migration costs, the renewed warning puts greater pressure on policymakers to ensure that any reopening of the market is based on transparency, competition and affordable migration.