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NEWS ANALYSIS : Reopening of Saudi Labour Market

Good opportunity, big responsibility

Porimol Palma
Saudi Arabia's decision to reopen its labour market for Bangladesh is a landmark development in overseas employment that has dwindled drastically over the past six years.
This progress comes after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Expatriates' Welfare Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain paid a number of visits to the Kingdom, the largest labour market for Bangladesh.
Nevertheless, it is hard to believe that the decision was
taken in favour of Bangladesh. It rather appears that the Kingdom did so to benefit its own economy as well as reaping the comparative advantage of hiring workers from a country [Bangladeshi that does not really negotiate higher pay for its deprived workers.
On the other hand, India, the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka have set various terms and conditions, including pay hike and improved work environment, on their migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, home to some 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers.
India has recently demanded the Saudi government raise minimum wages for its migrants to Saudi Riyals 1,500.
The most important demand for Bangladesh, on the contrary, was not salary hike or improved work conditions; it was rather to ensure that workers are recruited in more numbers because they send home the much-needed remittance, the second biggest economic pillar of the country's economy after the garment industry.
Considering Bangladesh's compliance, one cannot but wonder why the Kingdom still had put a restriction on hiring workers from Bangladesh. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi, the then Saudi labour minister, had told the media that the ban was under a new policy that, among other objectives, aimed to strike a balance among the various nationalities working in the Kingdom.
It is not clear whether those objectives have been achieved by now.
Another view behind the restriction was that many Bangladeshi workers were "illegal" and involved in criminal activities, and that the Saudi media had flared up the issue, creating a public outcry then.
Bangladesh Expatriates' Welfare Ministry officials and migration experts say that a large number of Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia were illegal, which was a result of ram-
pant corruption among manpower brokers and recruiting agencies both in Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.
Each Bangladeshi worker going to Saudi Arabia has to spend up to Tk 8 lakh as migration cost industry insiders say.
Manpower brokers secure visas from the Saudi employers and sell those to the brokers or recruiting agents in Bangladesh at higher prices, which raise migration cost. When a migrant fails to get salaries commensurate with his migration and other costs, he changes jobs, which is when he becomes illegal.
It is not unlikely that some Bangladeshi migrant workers are engaged in petty crimes. Such crimes should be punished as per the laws of the land but they should not cause a recruitment ban.
Average monthly salary for low-skilled Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia ranges from 800 to 1,000 Saudi Riyals [$216-$270| while it is above 1,200 Riyals forthe Indians.
These data well explain the roots of Bangladesh's labour problems in the Kingdom.
Now that a Saudi delegation is expected to visit Bangladesh shortly to set the modalities of recruitment, both the countries need to be sincere while devising ways to eliminate visas trading and reduce migration cost.
Bangladesh's role is vital here. The authorities need to ensure that each worker going to Saudi Arabia for a job is well-trained, aware of the laws of the land, and is not predisposed to any kind of criminal behaviour.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia also needs to have regulations to ensure that migrant workers get regularly paid, and are not exploited and forced to step into any crimes.
We do hope implementation of these measures will prevent the repetition of recruitment bans.