COMMENT | With Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman in Malaysia on his first official overseas visit since taking office, Migrant88, Bangladesh Solidarity Network and North South Initiative (NSI) urge both governments to place labour migration, migrant protection, and recruitment reform at the centre of bilateral discussions.

Malaysia is home to hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi workers whose labour contributes significantly to the economies of both countries.

Yet many continue to face excessive recruitment costs, debt burdens, labour exploitation, inadequate access to justice, and weak institutional protection.

These challenges cannot remain secondary issues in a relationship built on the movement of workers and remittances. For more than a decade, Migrant88 and NSI have documented worker experiences, recruitment practices, trafficking risks, and governance failures affecting Bangladeshi migrants in Malaysia.

Based on that experience, we present the following...