Despite having no prior experience in sending workers to Malaysia, Dhaka North City Ward 39 (Bhatara) Councillor Mohammad Shafiqul Islam's BM Travels Ltd has risen to the top of the list of agencies sending workers to Malaysia. His agency has collected 7,225 clearance certificates.
Many members of BAIRA say that councillor Shafiqul has good relations with syndicate founder Ruhul Amin. He was contacted on mobile phone but he was not available.
Mohiuddin Ahmed, joint general secretary of Dhaka City South Awami League, obtained a recruitment agency license in July 2022 and joined the syndicate. His company, Anonno Apurba Recruiting Agency, collected approvals for 2,600 workers. Speaking to Prothom Alo on mobile phone on May 4, he said they would talk about it face-to-face. Later, when he was repeatedly asked for a meeting time over the phone, he did not respond.
Many new companies have joined the Malaysia Syndicate and sent a large number of employees to Malaysia. Imperial Overseas received a recruitment agency license in March 2021. As of July 2022, it sent 344 employees abroad, but after joining the syndicate, it sent more than 7000 employees to Malaysia.
Two agencies confirmed to Prothom Alo that they paid the syndicate and sent workers through Imperial. The firm's managing director Md Mahbubur Rahman was contacted over the phone. After listening, he said he would talk about the matter after an hour. However, he did not answer the phone after that.