Seven Bangladeshi migrants, who were on a boat from Libya towards the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, have died of hypothermia, Italian Prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio said in a statement yesterday.

Seven Bangladeshi migrants who were on a boat from Libya heading for the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa have died of hypothermia, Agrigento Prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio said in a statement on Tuesday.

Malaysian Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin yesterday said his country will no longer give special quotas for the recruitment of foreign workers, reports The Star.

A debate over syndication in labour recruitment in Malaysia is swirling around, especially after Dhaka and Kuala Lumpur signed a memorandum of understanding in this regard on December 19.

No more special quotas will be given for the recruitment of foreign workers in Malaysia, the country's Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said today.

All authorised recruiting agencies will get opportunities to send workers to Malaysia, said Expatriates’ Welfare Minister Imran Ahmad.

Bangladeshis will continue to have the opportunity of applying for employment in Italy through the legal process as seasonal and non-seasonal workers in various sectors.

Malaysia’s agreement with Bangladesh on labour intake is shrouded in so much secrecy that even employers and agents do not have any access to details, reports a Free Malaysia Today opinion piece penned by K Parkaran.

“Media reports on recruiting syndicates for Malaysia are nothing but trash,” remarked Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad, while talking to The Daily Star yesterday.

A total of 25 Bangladeshi recruitment agencies and 250 sub-agencies are expected to be involved in the recruitment of migrant workers for Malaysia, reports news portal Malaysiakini citing sources.

Migrant workers from Bangladesh may soon be able to go to Greece by legal means as the two countries are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding in this regard next month.

Some 92 Bangladeshi workers left Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport for Korea today through chartered flights operated by a Korean air company as the government of the East Asian nation resumed receiving foreign workers.

Remittance slightly increased in the just concluded year after experiencing a falling trend in the last couple of months.

The government has increased cash incentive on remittance to 2.5 per cent from 2 per cent to encourage migrants to use proper channels to send money home.

Migration of Bangladeshi workers is set to increase by one and a half times of what was amid the pandemic last year, Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) said yesterday.

With current trends, migration of Bangladeshi workers likely increased by one-and-a-half times this year than what was amid the pandemic last year, Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit said today.

A syndicate responsible for Malaysia's ban on migrant worker recruitment from Bangladesh over corruption and irregularities is now controlling airfares to the Middle East, said manpower exporters at a meeting.

The service charge taken by recruiting agencies in Bangladesh to send workers to Malaysia should not exceed Tk 10,000, said Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) Director General Shahidul Alam yesterday.

Some 55 percent of 323 female migrant workers’ return to the country was either unexpected or forced, says a study by the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies.

Kuala Lumpur is set to resume hiring Bangladeshi workers, more than three years after the then Malaysian government, led by Mahathir Mohamad, froze fresh recruitment from Bangladesh citing forced labour and high migration costs.