Special Correspondent: Nobel laureate Dr. Yunus himself is on the verge of success with his personal initiative to reopen the Malaysian labor market which was closed on May 31 for Bangladeshi workers. At that very moment, a few businessmen started planning the blue scheme of controlling the labor market for their own personal interests. Recently, a picture of them with an important political leader of Malaysia went viral on social media. No clear explanation has been found yet.
Those involved in the manpower export sector claim that a gang led by controversial businessmen Noor Ali and Fakhrul Islam is once again vying to capture the Malaysian labor market. Such mishandling of the government’s image of power is questioning the market capture of these controversial businessmen when the Prime Minister of Malaysia visited Bangladesh and was very positive about the reopening of the labor market through the sole efforts of the Interim Chief Adviser Prof. Mohammad Yunus. The question raised among ordinary businessmen is who are the masterminds trying to take control of the labor market?
Ordinary members of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) say the two men accused have largely remained behind the scenes as the syndicate’s invisible masterminds. Recruiting license, medical center, e-visa center were all corrupt and managed the administration of Hasina government and they remained out of touch. They have been occupying BAIRA for more than 6 years in an autocratic manner by making the BAIRA elections a farce and undermining the rights of the members.
According to the complaint of the members, 10 people were syndicated under the leadership of Noor Ali from 2016 to 2018 to send workers to Malaysia. At that time the medical checkup cycle was also under the leadership of Noor Ali. Later, Noor Ali led the syndicate of 101 people from 2022 to 2024. Apart from this, allied recruiting agencies were also under his control and in the hands of his associates. He continues to try to re-syndicate. The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Home Minister Saif Uddin met with the concerned people and gave a big gift. But there he failed in his attempt to form a syndicate. The Noor Ali-led gang is again doing everything including an anti-syndicate campaign, press conference, human chain in the country. They are campaigning against the alleged syndicate through mass media, social media.
According to a complaint submitted to the ACC, a representative group of recruiting agency businessmen met with various political leaders including Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at a political event in Malaysia. The team was led by Fakrul Islam (LL-452) of HR Development Center and Moha: Noor Ali of Unique Eastern Private Limited (RL-21).
The complaint further states that during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure, Noor Ali and Fakhrul Islam were the biggest beneficiaries of Syndicate 10 in labor recruitment trade in Malaysia. Welcome Medical has hired its own medical center for the health examination of workers going to Malaysia. He stole crores of rupees by doing health checks of about 70 thousand workers only. There are now at least two licenses listed on the 101 recruiting agency list. His agency and Wellcome Medical Center are also on the list of partner recruiting agencies.
A businessman related to manpower export said that Fakhrul is now speaking anti-syndicate to gain sympathy from different quarters to become the president of Baira. But he was always part of the syndicate and syndicated himself. A businessman related to manpower export said that Fakhrul is now trying to gain sympathy from various quarters to become the president of BAIRA. But he was always part of the syndicate and made the syndicate by himself.
BAIRA members said Fakhrul Islam is the owner of his anonymous company Tribeni International and Celebrity International, which belongs to 101 Syndicate. He is trading in the name of others without using his license directly. Others who do business have one license, but he has two licenses. Additionally, other traders may have been within the main 101 agency or with affiliated recruiting agencies. Somebody’s only in the medical center business. Fakhrul is the only person who is remaining everywhere. Those concerned said that because of him and his associate syndicate, wrong messages are being sent about Bangladesh in various countries including Malaysia. Businessmen feel that it is important to bring those leaders under accountability first.
Concerned traders hope that the incumbent government will protect the labor market from these beneficiaries of the Hasina government and ensure a competitive healthy environment for business by prosecuting all past irregularities and corruption.
