The Brunei Recruitment Agency Association (BRAA) organised a press conference in protest of the government’s decision to exclude all private recruitment agencies from sending workers to Brunei, on Tuesday.
Held at the Dhaka Reporters Unity in Segunbagicha, Dhaka, BRAA countered the government’s decision to allow only the state-owned agency BOESL (Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited) to handle recruitment. They, representing other licensed private recruitment agencies in the country, demanded that the recruitment process to Brunei be made open to all.
At the press conference, the president of the association said, “In 2022, through an authoritarian agreement, all Brunei recruitment agencies were excluded, and a contract was signed with a government entity named BOESL. As a result, over 300 recruitment agencies that used to send workers to Brunei are now shut down.”
He added, “We used to send over 9,000 workers to Brunei annually, whereas BOESL sends only 200–300 per year. This has not only harmed us but also deprived the country of potential remittance earnings.”
The association’s chief advisor, MA Rashid Shah Samrat, said, “We want the labour market to be open for everyone. Just as BOESL is sending workers, we also want the opportunity to do so. We are licensed by the government, and by sidelining us in favor of a single agency, the labor market for an entire country has been held hostage—this harms both us and the nation.”
Representatives of the association who spoke at the press conference included its President Ikram Chowdhury, General Secretary Lion Delwar Chowdhury, and Organizational and Legal Affairs Secretary Md Nurul Alam.