Charles Santiago
Recently, two of the most credible international bodies on labour and migration drew a clear line.
On 12 May, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said it does not endorse Bestinet or its “foreign workers centralised management system” (FWCMS).
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) went further on 13 May. It said it had no involvement in the system’s design, development, operation or assessment. None.
Bestinet’s response, issued through lawyers: we never said they endorsed us.
So why did two UN-affiliated bodies feel the need to say so publicly, in the same week?
Borrowed credibility
The company’s defence rests heavily on the World Summit Awards, a digital innovation competition. [The award was given by the non-profit International Center for New Media. While it was presented at the UN World Summit on the Information Society, the ILO has been clear that the award does not imply UN recognition and is not an endorsement.] It was not a labour rights certification nor a governance audit.
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Placing it alongside the ILO and UN sustainable development goals is misleading.
The Malaysian government, which handed Bestinet control of migrant worker recruitment in 2018, deserves better than that.
The IOM clarification was not provoked by a specific accusation. It was pre-emptive – an institution feeling compelled to state, unprompted, that it has never touched this system. That is not a routine disclaimer but an institution protecting its name.
‘Just a technology platform’
Bestinet says it is merely a technology platform. Policy decisions, fees and levies are all someone else’s responsibility.
But this platform controls quota verification, biometric checks, insurance, agent management and full traceability. That is not a neutral pipe but the pipeline.
Saying the fees are someone else’s problem while owning the infrastructure through which those fees flow is not a defence. It is a description of how the problem works.
The allegations of exploitation involving Bangladeshi workers are not new. Bestinet’s denials are not new either.
What is new is two international bodies in one week stepping forward to say: not us, not ours, not endorsed.
Malaysia’s credibility test
Malaysia ratified the ILO Forced Labour Protocol in March 2022.
But that commitment means nothing if Putrajaya cannot answer basic questions: who audits FWCMS, what does accountability look like, and why has it stayed silent while the institutions it claims to align with are publicly walking away?
This is the test. And Malaysia is failing it.
Charles Santiago is the previous MP for Klang.
The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.
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