Bangladesh News

The flow of remittance increased by about 150 per cent in last five years while overseas manpower employment doubled, with a record amount of remittance earned and the highest number of people migrated last year.

From January to November in 2006, Bangladeshis abroad sent around US$ 4.92 billion against US$2 billion in 2001 while about 4 lakh people left the country for joining jobs overseas last year, which was less than 2 lakh in 2001, according to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET).

The money sent by the Bangladeshis abroad was US$4.25 billion in 2005 and the number of overseas manpower employment that year was only around 2.52 lakh.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) hired 1,30,204 people, the highest number, while The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) employed 1,09,513 people, the second highest number of contract or temporary workers from Bangladesh last year.

The UAE and KSA hired 61,978 and 80,425 workers in 2005 from Bangladesh.

The other countries that follow the KSA and UAE are Kuwait hiring 35,775 workers, Bahrain 16,355, Oman 8,082, Qatar 7,691 and Malaysia 20,469 workers from Bangladesh last year.

During the period of the caretaker government, the number of people who left the country for joining jobs abroad marked a sharp rise as it was about 46,474 in November and 49,012 in December last year.

The Middle East countries, especially the KSA and UAE, are hiring more workers from abroad, including Bangladesh, for development activities that got boosted due to almost doubling of oil price in the international market, manpower businesses and government officials said.

Strictness of the administration, especially during the caretaker government, also contributed to the increase of the number of people migrated last year.

“Strictness in checking at the airport contributed to the lessening of illegal or undocumented migration,” an official of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment said on condition of anonymity.

Many foreign job aspirants, who would like to resort to illegal ways, had to follow the legal or official ways and it contributed to the rise in the number of documented migration, said a source.

Referring to a case of holding 31 outbound women on November 17 last year by immigration police at Zia International Airport and alleged involvement of government officials, a recruiting agent said a large number of Bangladeshis go abroad illegally that keeps the official number lower.

The Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment suspended the four BMET officials who were detained by the police after the November 17 incident.

The then BMET director (Immigration) Manzur Rahman was also made OSD (official on special duty) for his alleged involvement in issuing emigration clearance certificates to the 31 women.

Migration expert Abdul Alim said the remittance would have doubled if the government could arrange sufficient banking facilities and incentives to the wage earners abroad as well as to the long-term Bangladeshi migrants in the developed countries.

More government attention for the internationally recognised professional training to the outgoing workers could also add value in the total migration process, he said.

The number of people going abroad could also increase greatly if the government took effective steps to explore new markets, especially to some European and African countries, Alim added.

Of around 50 lakh Bangladeshi workers and professionals working abroad, over 50 per cent are in the Middle Eastern countries and they send about 70 per cent of the total remittances.