KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will lift a ban on Bangladeshi workers — most of whom are men — to plug a labour shortage, two years after the government barred their recruitment fearing that local women found them too attractive, officials said on Wednesday.

The government has approved 139 agencies to facilitate the return of the workers and to monitor their activities, Home Affairs Ministry spokesman Mohamad Hafiz Nik Mustapha said.

The ministry also said it would not allow employers to recruit more than 50 per cent of their work force from Bangladesh, he told The Associated Press.

“It is easier for the government to monitor and control the activities of these agencies which are registered. Any abuse or wrongdoing will allow us to seize the guarantee bonds or revoke their licenses,” he said.

Malaysia restricted the number of Bangladeshi workers in the country in 1996 and banned them entirely two years ago, after it said they were creating social problems by entering into romantic liaisons with local women.

Officials have said the Bangladeshis, who looked like Indian movie stars to some local women, had seduced and eloped with them.

Mohamad Hafiz said employers seeking more than 50 Bangladeshi workers need to apply directly to the ministry. The agencies and employers must get the workers from the Bangladeshi Association of International Recruiting Agency, he added.

He declined to give a reason for the lifting of the ban.

A ministry official, who declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said the move came about partly due to the high demand for Bangladeshis who speak English and because of a shortage of foreign workers in the country.

Malaysia, one of Southeast Asia’s most vibrant economies, has about a million legal foreign laborers in its plantation, construction sites, factories and other industries. Tens of thousands more work without valid permits for a better living and to escape poverty back home.

Malaysia allows foreign workers from only a handful of countries, including Indonesia, India, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.—AP