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Manpower export low as ME demand drops

Govt fails to explore new market

PORIMOL PALMA
High cost of migration coupled with failure to explore new markets and the country's foreign missions' apathy towards emigrant workers are thwarting the promotion of manpower export and bringing reduction in benefits for the workers abroad, experts observe.
The government has not taken any significant initiative to explore new markets while manpower export to traditional markets like the Middle Eastern countries is declining and an unhealthy competition
among the recruiting agencies is increasing the cost of migration.
A worker now pays Tk 2 to 2.3 lakh for a job of a cleaner in Saudi Arabia at a salary of 350 Riyal (Tk 5,600) whereas the cost was Tk 1.4 to 1.7 lakh only a few months ago, said sources in the Bangladesh Association for International Recruiting Agencies (Baira).
The crises have been aggravated as the importing countries are now encouraging the employers to hire their own unemployed youths coining the terms like Saudiaization, Omanization, Emiratization, etc. of
their workforces.
According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), the KSA alone employed almost 72.48 percent of total manpower exported from Bangladesh in 2002, the number came down to 35.60 percent during January to September this year.
The massive decline in Saudi demand has pushed down overall manpower export 15.45 percent in 2005 compared to 2004.
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Malaysia, which had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Bangladesh to hire its workers back in October 2003, reportedly shied away from the commitment showing high migration cost as a major reason.
Similarly, South Korea, a lucrative job market for Bangladeshi workers, also identified high migration cost as the root cause for switching jobs and illegal overstaying of workers, a recruiting agency source said. About 15,000 Bangladeshi workers are staying illegallyin Korea.
Bangladesh is yet to qualify for entry into the coveted Employment Permit Scheme (EPS) of Korea that allows Korean employers to choose workers freely from listed countries. Entry in the Korean EPS could boost the manpower export, said Baira Secretary General Ali Haider Chowdhury.
"Bangladeshi workers in Korea violate contracts by switching jobs or by migrating to Japan for higher salaries because they are desperate to earn more money to recover the huge amount they pay to the recruiting agencies at home to emigrate," a Baira source added.
The government has failed to reduce the cost of migration to Korea that shot up to Tk 5 lakh, since it has no control over the four recruiting agencies, Silver Line Associates, Unique Eastern (Pvt) Ltd, Rupsha Overseas Ltd, and Orbital Enterprise, the source added.
Recently, the Korean Federation of Small Businesses awarded these four agencies contracts for supplying 200 trainee workers as the last chance and fixed the fee at Tk 1.92 lakh, but the agencies are charging Tk 8 lakh each, sources said.
AHM Mustafa Kamal, managing partner of Orchid Enterprise, however, declined to disclose the amount of money the four agencies charge for sending a worker to Korea.
"It is the media that contributes to
the increase of the cost, because whenever you (media) report that the agencies here charge high fees, the agencies in the destination countries also charge more," he told The Daily Star.
He said even if the workers were charged less, they would not act responsibly and would not hesitate to violate the contracts. He blamed the "fundamentalist image" of the country for the declinein manpower export.
Baira President Mosharraf Hossain MP said the government should update the rate of migration cost. "For example, the government fixed the rate at Tk 70,000 to send a worker to Malaysia a few years back, but it is now much more as the value of dollar went up."
Taking the advantage, the agencies are charging higher fees violating the rate fixed by the government, he said.
Baira president also said lack of funds and experts in the expatriate ministry and apathetic attitude of the foreign missions towards emigrant workers are a major deterrent to exploring new markets.
For example, Sudan is a potential market for foreign workers because of massive investment from foreign companies there, some of which sent letters to Bangladesh expressing interest in hiring its workers. But there is no Bangladesh mission there and the Cairo mission shows no interest in this regard, he added.
Baira's Secretary General Ali Haider Chowdhury suggested formation of a government cell for finding out new markets and for preparing the human resources accordingly in collaboration with the education ministry.
"A joint commission of the private and public sector also could be formed," he said.