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Download PDF The rise in remittance and overseas employment is on the verge of witnessing a downward trend in the next two years, as major labour markets in the Middle East and Malaysia banned fresh manpower recruitment or reduced quotas for Bangladesh.
The government target of reaching fresh overseas employments to nine lakh this year is also likely to fall flat, experts observe.
Economists suggest immediate actions fearing that this trend will soon hit the overall remittance.
“But at the same time the government should also make overseas jobs cost-effective. Because of bad competition sponsored by manpower exporters, workers pay too much money. This should be addressed,” said Prof MG Kibria of Morgan State University who recently conducted a study on Bangladesh’s manpower export and remittance.
“We can’t feel the blow of the bans or cut in overseas employment immediately, but after two to three years remittance will definitely dry up if no major changes take place,” said Syed Ashraf Ali, former executive director of Bangladesh Bank.
An estimated 50 lakh Bangladeshis are working abroad around the globe. Of them, about 30 lakh living in the Middle East send approximately 70 percent of the remittance.
They are helping tremendously the Middle Eastern economies grow through their cheap labour since the mid-seventies.
The number of workers went abroad for jobs during 2000 to 2005 ranges between 1.8 lakh to 2.5 lakh, while about 3.8 lakh workers flew abroad in 2006 and 8.32 lakh in 2007, according to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training.
Bangladesh also witnessed good growth of remittance, which was $1.88 billion in 2000-01 financial year and with gradual growth it stood at $5.97 billion in 2006-07.
But from May 27, Bahrain stopped issuing work permits to Bangladeshis, excepting the professionals, while thousands are leaving Saudi Arabia because it unofficially stopped renewing residential permits to Bangladeshis, who want to get new jobs on expiry of job contracts.
Bangladesh’s largest labour market Saudi Arabia, home to around 15 lakh Bangladeshis, imposed a ban on recruitment of Bangladeshis at households and agriculture sector.
On the other hand, Kuwait stopped hiring manpower from Bangladesh in late 2006 on grounds that Bangladeshis resort to crimes, while Malaysia stopped issuing fresh visas in October last year following problems created by Malaysian employers and recruiting agencies on both sides.
Though around four lakh workers were sent to Malaysia, serious problems of cheating, exploitation and underpayment have been reported in the media.
Cheated, around 2,000 of them already returned home in last one year. A small amount of remittance, $11.8 million in 2006-07, also proves such reports.
In 2006-07, Bangladesh received $1.73 billion from Saudi Arabia, $680.7 million from Kuwait and $80.0 million from Bahrain.
Syed Ashraf Ali, who has recently conducted a study on overseas employment and remittance for Asian Development Bank, said the recent events taking place in Bangladesh’s labour markets are a blow to the overseas employment sector.
“If there is no outflow of workers and if expatriates working for years are forced to return home, inflow of remittance will automatically come down,” he said.
“Such a situation will have profound effect on our economy.”
An official who recently worked at the ministry of expatriates’ welfare said he also thinks that present bans and reduction in number of workers will have negative impact in the long run.
“Whether overseas employment in these traditional countries is cost-effective or not is a serious question…, but it will surely affect our economy if the present situation continues,” he said.
He added the government’s most important task should be to train potential migrants as per the requirements of the labourer-receiving countries and to strongly check irregularities and fraudulent practices.
“Remittance is like a goldmine for Bangladesh. It plays a key role for stability in balance of payment and mitigating unemployment problems here,” said economist Dr Atiar Rahman, chairman of Unnayan Samannay.
“Banning or curtailing recruitment of Bangladeshis in the tested countries will definitely have major negative impact on our economy. We will be in deep crisis if this source of remittance is destroyed.”
Bangladesh missions should have database of all the workers abroad and should respond to any problems immediately, Atiar said, adding today’s problems are actually part of the failure of governance.
“Our diplomatic relations should be strengthened and manpower export processes giving a serious re-thought,” said a high official of the expatriates’ welfare ministry.
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