CNI News
7 September 2023
As the illegal agencies in Malaysia are fraudulently selling fake job offers, new overseas employment agencies in Myanmar need to be extra careful, said the Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Federation (MOEAF), to CNI News.
Because a demand letter presented by licensed agencies contained so many people that applied the KSM approval, when an official from Malaysia was asked to investigate it, it was found to be fake.
Illegal agencies or brokers are fraudulently selling fake demand letters to the agencies in Myanmar, Indonesia and Bangladesh after creating fake quotas, said in a statement released by the Safe Migration. Licensed agencies that get scammed are new agencies, said U Zaw Min Min, leader of the Malaysian Business Committee, to CNI News.
" They are cheated in person-to-person connection. There are legal agencies in our side and there are also legal agencies in their side. I haven't seen anybody who contacted their legal agencies' permanent addresses, e-mails and telephones was cheated.
A construction site in Malaysia
Mainly, it's the negligence of those who have been employed to look for demand letters. They have licensed C holders who have rights to call workers from foreign countries. You should contact with them or employers directly. These two are safe. You can check on the immigration website. KDM and KSM are faked by computer generated paper and shown. Otherwise, signed document is shown with a photoshop software. It's sort of an easy cheat." said U Zaw Min Min.
Among those who were cheated, first licensed agencies according to the law enacted in 1999 and agencies that are ten years and above old were not included. Newly licensed agencies only were cheated due to a lack of understanding of the nature of the business, added U Zaw Min Min.
If an agency received a demand letter, it should contact to the employer directly, which is advised. Because there are liars not only in Myanmar but also abroad, depending on the labor market, agencies need to carry out carefully, warned the Safe Migration.
MOEAF signboard
As Myanmar licensed agencies that were cheated don't give back service charges to the workers, if complained, the license will be suspended and the agency' money deposited will be lost, said Safe Migration.
" To the best of my knowledge, many agencies were cheated. Most of the agencies that were cheated largely don't give back service charges to the workers without taking care of being blacklisted because they are new agencies that have no backing." said Hmwar Michael, one of the people helping Myanmar migrant workers in Malaysia.
Currently, as the economy in Malaysia is declining, recruitment of workers not only from Myanmar but also from other countries is low, according to the MOEAF.
