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So far away

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, other two major destinations of Bangladeshi workers, have also significantly reduced issuance of work visas to Bangladeshi workers. Saudi Arabia recruited only 1,531 Bangladeshi workers in December and 981 in January this year.

A.N.M. Nurul Haque
THE government's plan to send some 40 lakh skilled or unskilled workers abroad during its tenure to fulfill the election pledges for poverty alleviation, outlined by the expatriate welfare and overseas employment minister on January 28, is merely wishful thinking far away from reality.
Opportunities for overseas employment have come down sharply in the recent days and many Bangladeshi workers are losing their jobs abroad in the midst of global economic meltdown. A recent 1LO report said that global unemployment in 2009 could increase over that of 2007 by a range of 18 million to 30 million workers, and more than 50 million if the meltdown continues to deteriorate.
Statistics of the Bureau of Manpower Employment and TYaining revealed that only 44,378 Bangladeshis got jobs abroad in December and 46,267 in January, while 75,516 workers joined overseas jobs monthly on an average during 11 monthsof2008.
This declining rate of overseas employment is likely to dip further in the days ahead as Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), two major destinations of Bangladeshi workers, have already reduced the number of employing Bangladeshi workers.
Malaysia, which recruited 11,369 Bangladeshi workers monthly on an average in the first 11 months in 2008, has
recruited only 6,701 workers in December and 5,694 workers in January, indicating decrease in recruitment Malaysia's deputy prime minister recently told the parliament that his government is taking steps to reduce the number of foreign workers by 400,000 per year until 2010.
UAE, which employed nearly 395,000 workers out of 832,000 from Bangladesh in 2008, has reduced issuing work visas because of the global economic meltdown. Though UAE employed nearly 36,000 workers from Bangladesh on an average each month until November 2008, it employed only 23,978 workers in December and 25,463 in January this year.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, other two major destinations of Bangladeshi workers, have also significantly reduced issuance of work visas to Bangladeshi workers. Saudi Arabia recruited only 1,531 Bangladeshi workers in December and 981 in January this year.
Bangladeshi workers are also losing jobs in Singapore, which is facing serious global economic meltdown, mainly in its shipping business. Around 10,000 Bangladeshi workers who lost jobs in Singapore were provided with food and shelters by some charities in that country.
Besides, being irked by recruitment irregularities and malpractices, some countries have already squeezed access of Bangladeshi workers to their job markets while some others are planning to. Recruitment irregularities and malprac-
tices run rife in the overseas employment sector and people seeking job abroad pay the price, sometimes with their lives. Sadly, the successive governments had failed in taking stern action against the unscrupulous syndicates responsible for facilitating illegal exit to job-seekers abroad.
The market for unskilled labour is shrinking fast all over the world, as major employing countries are now switching over to high technology based production and services which need skilled labour.
The government now needs to take serious efforts for establishment of more technical institutions across the country in a bid to impart international standard training to the workers on topics that have demand abroad so that they can enter the new job markets.
The apprehension of mass scale retrenchment of migrant workers as the fallout of the global economic meltdown is looming large all over the world. The world witnessed the shedding of 9,000 jobs per day on an average in January and 80,000 job cuts in a single day on January,
which is alarmingindeed.
The Canadian economy lost 34,400 jobs in December, driving the unemployment rate up to 6.6 percent. It was the second month of heavy job losses, after 70,600 were shed in November.
The brutal acceleration of job losses suggests a vicious downward cycle for the world's biggest economy, the US, which lost 524,000 jobs in December and a staggering 2.6 million jobs in all of 2008.
Emerging economy of China is also struggling with its six million migrant workers returning from closed export factories to the rural economy.
The brunt of the global economic meltdown has already been felt in Bangladesh in the field of exporting labour abroad. But a silver lining to this cloud is still there, as countries like Libya, Jordan, Qatar and Syria need foreign workers. Therefore, the government along with all other overseas job-linked bodies, must now concert their efforts towards exploring new job markets.
ANU Nurul Haque is a Daily Star Columnist