PORT OF SPAIN (Trinidad and Tobago): Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the freeze on the intake of Bangladeshi workers stays despite a request from his Bangladeshi counterpart for a review of the decision.

He said the request was conveyed in his talks with Sheikh Hasina Wajed on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009 here Saturday.

Speaking to Malaysian journalists at the end of Day Two of the conference, he said: "I explained to her that we decided on the freeze to prevent unscrupulous agents from exploiting the workers."

He said many Bangladeshi workers had been duped by these agents into believing that they would get well-paying jobs in Malaysia.

Some of them, he said, had even sold their belongings including livestock to fund their journeys to Malaysia.

"This is the kind of deception that we want to prevent," he noted.

According to Najib, the Bangladeshi side understood that in the current economic climate, it would be difficult for Malaysia to increase the number of workers from Bangladesh.

The cabinet decided to freeze the intake of Bangladeshi workers in October 2007, the second time such a decision was made after the first in 1999.

In March this year, the cabinet also cancelled visas for Bangladeshi nationals who obtained their work permits in 2007 but have yet to enter the country.

The move was taken in line with the government's decision to minimise intake of foreign workers, except in certain critical sectors. -- Bernama

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