Bangladesh-Malaysia recruitment reforms revive old questions over the cost of migration

Bangladesh and Malaysia are once again resetting their labour migration corridor, this time with a plan for Malaysia to recruit around 200,000 Bangladeshi workers over six months, including 10,000 on a zero-cost basis. Two days after a Bangladeshi minister announced the figure, Malaysia's government spokesperson said 200,000 was not an official position, reviving the uncertainty that has dogged this relationship since 1992.

The pattern is familiar: G2G and G2G Plus arrangements in 2012 and 2016 promised low fixed costs, around BDT 37,000-40,000, but workers reportedly paid up to ten times that, and Malaysia suspended recruitment in 2018 over syndication. The latest cycle collapsed in similarly dirty fashion, with Bangladesh revoking 49 agency licences in July 2026 after investigators alleged workers were charged up to five times the legal fee, totaling more than BDT 45.45 billion in excess payments.

Against that backdrop, officials are now warning prospective migrants not to pay money, undergo exams, or hand over passports before formal instructions, a caution that reads less like guidance and more like an admission of how often it hasn't worked. One worker from Sherpur told Global Voices his family spent roughly BDT 500,000 preparing to migrate before the process stalled entirely, money drawn from savings, land sales, and loans.

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