The manpower outflow continues to dip, as major importing countries are reluctant to hire workers from Bangladesh despite their economies showing signs of recovery from the financial crisis. Regulatory loopholes and unscrupulous recruiting agencies are partly to blame.
The country sent 60,896 people in January and February this year, averaging the monthly figure of 30,448. The monthly average figure of migrants was 39,606 in 2009, way down from 72,921 a year ago.
According to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training, about 8.75 lakh people left for overseas jobs in 2008,
which plummeted to 4.75 lakh in2009.
The global economic recession caused a significant decline in manpower export last year. This year when some countries have already started hiring workers, Bangladesh is lagging because of what recruiters and experts say is a lack of comprehensive approach to address labour-related problems and promote markets.
Around 6 million Bangladeshi expatriates sent a home record $9.69 billion last fiscal year. Remittance helps the country maintain its balance of payments. The government and private sector businesses believe a decline in remittances would cost them heavily.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Malaysia, Kuwait and Singapore are the major markets for Bangladesh's workers. The KSA and Kuwait have kept their doors almost shut for long, apparently due to anomalies in recruitment process.
The KSA, home to over 1.5 million Bangladeshis, hired 14,666 workers and Kuwait only 10 jobseekers last year.
A Bangladesh delegation led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited KSA last year and Kuwait recently when manpower figured prominently in the talks, but there was no progress.
Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, however, said besides irregularities, a good number of Rohingyas who identified themselves as Bangladeshis and are engaged in crimes in the KSA are a serious concern for Bangladesh.
"We are working silently to address all these problems," he claimed.
Meanwhile, Malaysia that cancelled work visas for 55,000 Bangladeshis in March last year following the economic crisis is now hiring 1 lakh workers from Nepal.
Labour market analysts say anomalies in the work of both the manpower agents and government officials of both the countries dominated the recruitment process of Bangladeshis in Malaysia. The agents processed recruitment of excessive workers to make money, they say.
" However, there is no visible
effort to rectify the regulatory loopholes," said Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) President Ghulam Mustafa. Bangladesh must make strong moves to address the problems with Malaysia, which requires several lakh workers, he said.
Mustafa said Libya will require several lakh workers in the next few years, but still, the government is not smartly handling the labour recruitmentprocess.
Several thousand workers who got visas cannot join the jobs there because Bangladesh did not authenticate the job demand letters, he toldThe Daily Star, adding. "We requested the government to issue emigration clearance by keeping affidavits from the recruiting agents. But nothing worked."
The Libyan authorities are not happy about the Bangladesh embassy's slow work regime, he said, adding that Libya may take its eyes off
Bangladesh if the situation persists.
"The government can neither settle the problems with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait nor streamline the recruitment in Libya or Malaysia. With such lethargy, we can see no light in manpower sector," said Baira Joint Secretary Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury.
However, Expatriates’ Welfare Minister Mosharraf Hossain said overseas jobs would boost by April when the UAE's economy recovers fully, and political stability of prospective market in Iraq returns after the national polls.
He says this although UAE, the second highest labour market, still hired on average monthly 17,309 jobseekers this year. On the other hand, Iraq's market is highly uncertain because of its political instability though it has reportedly issued several thousand work visas for the Bangladeshis.
Prof Tasneem Siddiqui of
Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit said lack of market analysis and promotion is a huge problem for Bangladesh.
"In today's competitive worid, it is not possible to win labour markets without well-researched and coordinated efforts of both the expatriates' welfare and foreign ministries," she said, adding a market research cell must be there to find out jobs and offer suggestions for training manpower.
"We have been urging the authorities to expand nursing education, as there are huge demands for nurses worldwide, but the authorities have no concern in this regard," Siddiqui said.
Mosharraf Hossain said he would propose a market research cell in the next budget.
"Nursing education requires huge investment, you know. However, we are in talks with a US company about it," he told The Daily Star.