Recruiting agencies and representative associations of Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Pakistan have expressed deep concern over reported arrangements regarding Malaysia’s Foreign Worker Centralised Management System (FWCMS), warning against syndication and private monopoly in the sector.
In a joint press release issued on Wednesday, the foreign employment organisations strongly urged the governments of Malaysia and the four sending countries to immediately clarify the legal and institutional basis of any arrangement governing access to the FWCMS and related recruitment processes.
The statement was signed by Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) President Dik Bahadur Khatri, Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) Immediate Past Senior Vice President Reaz ul Islam, Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Association (MOEAA) Chairman Myo Thant, and Pakistan Overseas Employment Promoters Association (POEPA) Chairman Sayed Rahmat Ali Shah.
According to joint statement, any arrangement providing exclusive or preferential access to a limited number of private entities or recruitment agencies, while restricting or excluding other legally licensed agencies, raises serious concerns regarding fair competition, transparency, equal opportunity, and the rights and interests of migrant workers.
The leaders emphasised that foreign employment is a vital economic sector for their nations, supporting millions of workers and their families while contributing significantly to national economies through remittances.
They asserted that this sector cannot be allowed to come under the control of any private company, group, or a limited number of businesses through selective access to recruitment systems, employers, workers, or recruitment opportunities.
The associations urged the relevant ministries, regulatory authorities, diplomatic missions, and all concerned Malaysian authorities to make the eligibility criteria, selection mechanism, legal authority, contractual arrangements, scope of authority, and relationship between the system operator and selected recruitment agencies transparent and subject to appropriate regulatory oversight.
They warned that any attempt by a private entity or group to control the recruitment system, employer access, worker deployment, recruitment opportunities, or the overall foreign employment business would constitute a serious threat to an open and competitive recruitment environment.
No private organisation, they added, should be allowed to transform a national foreign worker recruitment mechanism into a system under its exclusive commercial control.
Expressing their commitment to work collectively, the undersigned representatives called for an impartial review and, if necessary, an investigation by competent authorities into any arrangement that may restrict legitimate recruitment agencies from accessing opportunities.
They also urged authorities to ensure that all legally licensed recruitment agencies are provided with fair, transparent, non-discriminatory, and equal access to the recruitment system, reiterating that foreign employment is “not the private property of any individual, company or group.”
The leaders declared that they would stand united against any attempt to place Malaysia’s foreign employment sector, recruitment system, or migrant workers under the control of a private syndicate or monopoly.
They vowed to pursue all appropriate institutional, diplomatic, and lawful measures to protect fair competition, workers’ interests, and the integrity of the foreign employment sector.
