All recruiting agencies will now be able to send workers to Malaysia under the existing government-to-government (G-to-G) plus arrangement.

The decision in this regard was taken on Tuesday at a Joint Working Group meeting at Putrajaya in Malaysia.

An 11-member delegation, led by Bangladesh High Commissioner in Kuala Lumpur Shahidul Islam, took part in the meeting with a Malaysian delegation, said a press release issued by the expatriates' welfare ministry.

The meeting also decided that Bangladeshi workers who are in the process of going to the Southeast Asian country through calling visas will be allowed to go there.

The Malaysian government is positive to regularise undocumented Bangladeshi workers, the release said.

The delegation members included Salim Reza, director general at the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), and Munirus Saleheen, additional secretary at the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment (EWOE).

Meanwhile, a five-member delegation, headed by Expatriates' Welfare Minister Nurul Islam, met Malaysian Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran to discuss migration issues.

The Malaysian government stopped issuing demand letters for Bangladeshi workers since September 01 due to an alleged syndication through the online system of 'Sistem Pengambilan Pekerja Asing (SPPA) under the G-to-G plus MoU.

An organised syndicate of 10 recruiting agencies, led by a Bangladeshi businessman with alleged political connections with the Malaysian home ministry, raked in at least two billion Malaysian ringgits in just two years from Bangladeshi workers, The Star Online, a Malaysian newspaper, reported in June last.

The workers paid RM 20,000 (Tk 4 lakh) each to their local agents who then paid half of the sum to the syndicate to have work permit approval and flight tickets to Malaysia, the report said.

About 0.2 million Bangladeshi workers went to Malaysia through SPPA since the signing of G-to-G plus deal in 2016.

The G-to-G plus has been initiated as the G-to-G deal failed to send a required number of manpower from Bangladesh.

Nearly 0.9 million Bangladeshi workers are now staying in the Southeast Asian country, sources said.