Bangladesh asks Malaysia to arrest and extradite two businessmen for alleged trafficking of migrant workers and extortion

“Bestinet denies the existence of any syndicate allegedly controlled by Aminul or anyone else within our jurisdiction,” Ismail Mohd Noor, Bestinet’s current CEO, told Malaysiakini on September 23, adding that Mr Aminul was no longer involved is involved in any part of Bestinet’s activities.

On September 18, Bangladeshi media outlet Prothom Alo reported that both Mr Aminul and Mr Ruhul were involved as “controllers” of a money laundering syndicate made up of 100 agencies that could continue to send migrant workers to Malaysia, although recruitment agencies are no longer allowed to do so. has been sending employees to Malaysia since May this year.

The Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs had confirmed the import deadline of May 31 after tens of thousands of migrant workers from Bangladesh fell victim to an elaborate labor scam in Malaysia, requiring them to pay up to $5,000 upfront for jobs that didn’t exist, forcing them to work illegally to pay off debts, according to South China Morning Post .

According to the owners of local recruitment agencies in Bangladesh, quoted in Prothom Alo, the official registration fee per employee is 2,700 Bangladeshi Taka ($22.59), but employees have been charged a fee of approximately 107,000 Bangladeshi Taka by the syndicate .

Prothom Alo reported that while 7,000 Bangladeshi Taka is obtained by a local collection agency, the remaining 100,000 Bangladeshi Taka is sent to Bestinet through “illegal channels” as “syndicate fee”. And in this way, an amount of 50 billion Bangladeshi Taka has been laundered, as reported by Prothom Alo.

Mr Ismail refuted the claims about exorbitant application fees reported by local media in Bangladesh.

“We do not charge syndicate fees. We only collect the amount allowed by the Malaysian government,” Mr Ismail said, as quoted by Malaysiakini.

On June 20, Prothom Alo also reported that Mr Ruhul had denied money laundering allegations.

“Why does everyone give me money, am I so powerful? Aminul Islam is also a businessman. How will the businessmen gain control over the labor market?” he was quoted by Prothom Alo.

According to Bloomberg, Bangladesh police had also asked Malaysia to temporarily shut down Bestinet’s own IT system, the Foreign Workers Centralized Management System (FWCMS).

The Malaysian Immigration Department has been using the FWCMS platform since 2013 to monitor and consolidate visa applications from 15 countries (including Bangladesh) that export labor to Malaysia.