Overseas job market shrinking for Bangladeshis Rabiul Islam Single country focus leads to the crisis The number of Bangladeshis going abroad for work is declining due to economic downturns in different parts of the world, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain told reporters on Wednesday. “Manpower export is not happening this year as we expected. Rather, it is downward,” Mosharraf said during a press briefing at the Probashi Kalyan Bhaban yesterday after returning from a visit to Saudi Arabia and UAE earlier this month. The minister said last year, around 45,000 workers on average travelled abroad every month, whereas their number had fallen to 30,000 to 32,000 this year. “However, we hope that a total 450,000 workers will go abroad this year, provided the world economic recession improves, but it is taking serious turn,” Mosharraf said. According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), which deals with overseas employment, a total of 208,340 workers have gone to different countries, including Oman, Qatar and Singapore, in the first six months of this year. In comparison, BMET statistics show that a total of 374,837 workers went abroad during the first half of 2012, to countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman and Singapore. According to Bangladesh Bank data, migrant workers sent home $14.17b in remittances last year. An expert on migration told the Dhaka Tribune that the government should explore new markets to send more workers abroad, or the declining trend in overseas employment would have an impact on remittances in the future. “Successive governments pay attention to one country only, this is a great problem,” Tasneem Siddiqui, founding chair of Refugee and Migratory Movements and Research Unit said. Tasneem said this government paid much attention to Saudi Arabia, which has now stopped issuing visas. She added that the government could not send workers to Malaysia at the expected level. However, the overseas employment minister reassured that Saudi Arabia was willing to recruit more workers from Bangladesh, but the new intake was expected to take place after an amnesty period ends on November 4. Mosharraf added that the UAE would restart recruitment after finalising a list of foreign workers, while the formation of a new government in Malaysia had delayed recruitment of Bangladeshi workers, but it was expected to resume at the end of this month. During the briefing, the minister selected 11,773 workers, out of the 24,280 that registered online, through a lottery for travelling to Malaysia. Meanwhile, the minister said that from now on, the Saudi government would issue family visas for Bangladeshi expatriates. Mosharraf also urged all undocumented Bangladeshi migrant workers in the kingdom to become legalised as soon as possible. The minister warned that if a migrant worker failed to become legalised, he or she would have to pay a fine of 100,000 Saudi riyals (about Tk2m) and face a year in jail. Regarding allegations that brokers were charging 2,000 to 5,000 Saudi riyals (Tk40,705-101,760) for legalisation of undocumented workers, the minister said it was difficult to identify the unscrupulous people. “But if anyone has specific allegations, action will be taken,” Mosharraf assured.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 14:54:52 +0000
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