Shawdesh Desk:

Over a hundred aspiring migrant workers, who missed their flights to Malaysia, staged a demonstration at the SAARC Circle in Karwan Bazar area on Wednesday morning, demanding the jobs they were promised in the country.

The demonstrators, part of a group of 18,000 people who missed the May 31 deadline last year set by Malaysian authorities, began their protest at about 9:00am on Wednesday, blocking the turning points between Karwan Bazar and the Panthapath intersection.

Main Uddin Babu, a leader of the protesters, told New Age at about 10:20am that the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare had assured them of jobs in Malaysia, as they had already paid the agencies, but no progress had been made so far.

He said that the demonstration would continue until the interim government announced a specific date for sending the stranded workers to Malaysia.

Their demands included ensuring that all those who could not go to Malaysia on May 31, 2024, due to syndicates—despite paying Tk 5 to Tk 6 lakh—be sent to the country by February 20, and establishing a Remittance Foundation for all expatriates.

Around 50,000 Bangladeshi aspirants failed to migrate to Malaysia after completing almost all the processes by the May 31 deadline set by the Malaysian authorities. Of them 16,970 aspirant migrants failed to fly to Malaysia at the last moment due to unavailability of air tickets.

On October 4, Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim after a bilateral meeting in Dhaka announced that they had agreed to consider issuing 18,000 work visas for those Bangladeshis who got stuck and could not fly due to some recent measures by the Malaysia government.