Bangladesh News

Fraud manpower exporters are swindling people with promises of jobs in South Korea, a country which does not allow any private firm to send workers.
Vested interest groups are also cheating people saying that they have good links with a government recruiting agency, which is actually the only authorised agency right now for sending workers to South Korea.

Anisur Rahman of Munshiganj told The Daily Star that he and his cousin paid over Tk 1,000 each,

submitted their passports and two filled-up forms three months ago to a broker in Mirpur for Korean language training for going to South Korea.

He said the name of the training institute was not even mentioned. Asked if they learned the language, he said the broker told them that they themselves would have to hire a teacher to learn the language.”

“Three months ago the broker said we could go to Korea in two months, but there has been no progress till now,” he said adding that a number of people in Bikrampur also paid money to such brokers.

The broker told the prospective workers that they will have to pay Tk 8 lakh to Tk 8.5 lakh to go to South Korea, Anisur Rahman said.

Meanwhile, Mahtab Alam, a businessman from Islampur in the capital said there are dozens of brokers who are actively involved in cheating hundreds of people with similar promises.

“These brokers have been sending people to various countries for a long time. People interested to go to South Korea therefore also have reasons to believe that their promises are authentic,” he said.

The Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment in a recent circular said some vested interest groups are trying to create problems in the process of exporting manpower to South Korea to tarnish the image of Bangladesh Overseas Employment Services Limited (BOESL), a state owned recruiting agency, which is the only company authorised to send workers to that country.

BOESL and the South Korean Ministry of Labour are entitled to arrange recruitment of workers for that country under a special system called Employment Permit System (EPS). A memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard was signed on June 4 between Bangladesh and South Korea.

“There is no scope for any other recruiting agency to send Bangladeshi workers to South Korea now,” said Abdul Matin Chowdhury, secretary to the expatriates’ welfare ministry. Many formalities, including fixing the migration cost and medical tests are yet to be planned and determined, he noted.

Talking about the procedure, he said the government will make public through television and newspapers the amount of money that will be required for going to South Korea. The amount will be fixed jointly by Bangladesh and South Korea, he said.

Those interested to go to South Korea will have to undergo a Korean language proficiency test which will be conducted in Bangladesh by the Korean labour ministry, Matin Chowdhury added.

Only those who will pass the test will be included on the roster, he said adding that the workers will then have to fill up a form giving their detailed information and desired salaries. Only the workers selected by South Korean employers will be sent to that country.

He cautioned interested candidates not to pay any money to any broker or agency for the purpose of migrating to South Korea, because there is no scope for any private agency to be involved in the process directly or indirectly.

South Korea will hire workers for sectors like agriculture, construction, fisheries and services, he said adding that they cannot say exactly the number of workers South Korea will take.

“The number will depend on how many workers pass the tests,” he said.

Korea presently has a plan to hire 10,000 workers from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan and East Timor under EPS, he added.