The MoU lifted a freeze on Bangladesh labour recruitment which had been in place since September 2018 when Pakatan Harapan was in power, and Saravanan said the fact that the document has not been made public should not be a surprise.

“When have MoUs ever been made public? In this country, when have MoUs ever been made public? Some people are taking a special interest (in the MoU). I don’t know why. Is there something more to this?” he told reporters here.

“I’ve been in the government for almost 15 years as a deputy minister and a minister (and) we have never disclosed the details of MoUs,” he added after a Socso event.

Among those who have pushed for the MoU to be made public are workers’ rights NGO Tenaganita, which said that it might not have any provisions on how to deal with migrant workers facing abuse by their employers.

Its director, Joseph Paul, said he did not want the intake to be done in a “secretive manner” as it could lead to claims of forced labour.

He also called for clarity in recruitment costs and the number of Bangladesh recruitment agencies allowed to send workers to Malaysia.

During the MoU signing last month, Saravanan said a total of 326,669 Bangladeshi nationals were working in the country as at Nov 30, with the majority of them in manufacturing (111,694) and construction (136,897).

He said the MoU was expected to meet the urgent need for foreign workers, including in the plantation sector, with the Cabinet having already approved 32,000 of them through special exemption last September.