Impoverished Bangladesh has urged the Malaysian government to reconsider a decision to cancel work visas issued to 55,000 Bangladeshi workers, a cabinet minister in Dhaka said today.

Kuala Lumpur said this week workers who had visas approved last year, but who had not yet arrived in Malaysia, would not be allowed to enter the country as it faces layoffs and the threat of recession.

Bangladesh's labour minister, Khandkor Mosharraf Hossain, told AFP his government had issued a plea for Malaysia to reverse the move.

"What I am trying to do is requesting the Malaysian government to find jobs for the workers in the agricultural sector," he said.

"I think they are considering this issue compassionately and considering these visas based on real demand."

Nine million working abroad

Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world with a population of 144 million, relies on money from overseas workers but remittances are slowing in the global economic crisis.

The nine million Bangladeshis believed to be working abroad - mostly in low-skilled jobs including construction, domestic work or in factories - sent back last year a record US$8 billion, or 12 percent of the economy.

The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) led the call for the workers to be banned, saying the situation for Malaysians was bleak enough without additional foreign manpower.

In January, the government banned the hiring of new foreigners in the manufacturing and services sectors after a report forecast 45,000 Malaysians would lose their jobs in the next few months.