Bangladesh Sramik Kalyan Federation central president Atikur Rahman alleged that a vested group is trying to exploit workers through syndicates in the labour market. Speaking at a Tuesday human chain outside the National Press Club, he demanded an end to alleged efforts to hand Malaysia’s Bangladesh labour market back to syndicates, alongside action on factory closures, layoffs, prices and minimum wages.

Rahman said Malaysia is an important destination for Bangladeshi workers and remittance earnings. He said syndicates and politicisation under the previous authoritarian government had closed the market, and about 17,000 workers could not travel from Dhaka airport on May 31, 2024 because of different syndicates. He welcomed the initiative to reopen the market after the prime minister’s Malaysia visit but criticised the government for allowing only 25 recruiting agencies to operate there.

He said syndicates could impose costs of Tk700,000 to Tk800,000 on each worker travelling to Malaysia. Rahman also said gas and power shortages had shut more than 300 factories and cost about 62,000 workers jobs in six months. He called for national and profession-based wage boards, lower oil and gas prices, reliable electricity, market-price controls and wage revisions across sectors.