The agencies were also asked to form groups for collecting visa advice instead of individual marketing while sending people to Malaysia.

The instructions were given at a meeting between the high officials of the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment and leaders of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) on Wednesday.

"We hope fresh recruitment of workers to Malaysia will start from January," State Minister for Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Mohammad Quamrul Islam told the meeting.

The Malaysian cabinet recently approved the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Dhaka and Kuala Lumpur in October last year for recruiting workers.

Kuala Lumpur had stopped recruiting workers from Bangladesh in 1997 following an inflow of huge undocumented workers.

Around half a million Bangladeshis were employed in Malaysia in mid 90s and the migration cost went up to Tk 1,25,000 to 1,50,000. Many of the workers penetrated into that country without any valid documents.

At that time an unofficial visa advice market had developed in Kuala Lumpur where a visa advice was sometimes sold at Tk 35,000 to 50,000.

At present more than 1.30 lakh Bangladeshis are working in Malaysia with valid documents. Their job contracts have been renewed several times.

The job market is going to be opened again and the government is very much alert to the possibility of repetition of the previous mistakes. However, this time there will be no scope for doing monopoly business regarding manpower export to Malaysia.

"It will remain open for all recruiting agencies but they will have to form groups of 10-12 for conducing joint marketing drive to avoid unhealthy competition," the state minister for expatriates welfare and overseas employment said.

Team leader of every group of recruiting agencies will have to go to Malaysia for collecting visa advice for the job seekers.

Baira Chairman MAH Selim MP said the recruiters would vehemently oppose if any quarter wants to monopolise the market.

The meeting also decided to renew recruiting licences for three years instead of one year to avoid 'harassment' to the recruiters.

The approval to a licence will now be given for minimum three years and maximum five years after payment of government fees. The government will charge Tk 15,000 per year against each licence, the source said.

The government will have every right to cancel any licence or take action against any licence holder for unlawful activities.

There are a total of 600 licensed recruiting agencies in the country. They send over two lakh people abroad annually for job purposes. Middle East and Far Eastern countries are the major destinations of Bangladeshi workers.