A BANGLADESHI businessman with alleged connections in the Home Ministry smuggled over 100,000 of his countrymen into Malaysia, making at least RM2 billion in two years, The Star reports.

The businessman, who is married to a Malaysian, was also instrumental in getting Malaysia and Bangladesh to sign a government-to-government agreement in 2016 when Barisan Nasional was in power.

The deal enabled only 10 Bangladeshi companies to recruit workers for Malaysia, solely to make money as middlemen, an unnamed source told The Star.

New Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran has suspended the Bangladeshi recruitment system until a full investigation has been completed on the said human trafficking syndicate.

The Star reported the workers paid RM20,000 each to their village sub-agents, who would go through at least two more middlemen before getting to local agents appointed by the Bangladeshi government.

Half of the money went to a human trafficking syndicate that arranged for their flights to Malaysia and work permits.

The source said this had been ongoing since late 2016, and 100,000 more workers are still waiting for their turn to enter Malaysia.

“The Datuk Seri also shares a portion of the money he makes with politicians and government staff from both countries,” the source told The Star.

To ensure smooth operation and protect the 10 companies’ interest, the businessman even set up a new online registration system called “Sistem Perkhidmatan Pekerja Asing (SPPA)” for the sole use of hiring Bangladeshi workers.

SPPA was operated by a private company called Bestinet Sdn Bhd, a firm reportedly owned by former home minister Azmi Khalid that also developed the Foreign Workers Centralised Management System (FWCMS), used by the Immigration Department for foreign workers’ visa applications.

“Employers are required to pay RM305 for each worker hired from Bangladesh under SPPA. The money collected goes to Bestinet as a service charge for the distribution of the workers to their employers via the 10 companies,” said the source.

Compared with the high price the workers paid to come to Malaysia, the bosses only had to pay between RM7,000 and RM8,000 each before SPPA and the middlemen were introduced, The Star quoted Chirara Kannan, owner of a consultancy service for several employers, as saying.

Kulasegaran said the whole recruitment process a “mess” as the previous BN administration managed it like a business aimed at “benefiting certain individuals”.

“We are investigating this, and are in the process of fixing the problem. There have been discussions going on at various levels on the matter and I believe we will be able to find a solution soon,” he reportedly said.

For now, Malaysia has reverted to the old system where the government manages the foreign worker hiring process, he said. – June 22, 2018.