Arafat Ara
Job market in Oman for Bangladeshi professionals is on a decline as an increased number of workers have returned from the gulf country in recent months, sector insiders said.
According to available data, a total of 37,200 workers came back home from Oman during the October-March period. Some 133 workers returned home on April 25-26, the data showed.
Besides, the number of workers migrating to the Middle East (ME) country was 39,395 during the same period, Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) data showed.
Rights activists said the job opportunities declined significantly recently in ME countries, including Oman, due to economic slowdown.
So, Bangladeshi workers are not getting jobs like earlier. Especially those who are going to the ME country with so-called free visas are facing various difficulties.
They said without arranging legal jobs, any workers should not be sent to a destination country.
Shariful Islam, programme head of BRAC migration programme, said job opportunities have shrunk in the ME countries. So no worker should be sent before making sure that his or her job is ready there.
He also suggested preparing a database of returnee workers and analysing the reasons behind their repatriation.
Such analysis will help take a proper strategy for the wellbeing of the workers, he observed. He also stressed the need for reintegration for the workers.
Currently, 700,000 Bangladeshis are working in the Middle Eastern country.
However, in a recent technical committee meeting, an Omani delegation headed by Saleh Aayil Khamis Al-Aamri, adviser of Manpower for Labour Welfare minister, expressed willingness to recruit only skilled manpower.
They said many Bangladeshi workers leave their workplaces in Oman causing a concern among the Omani authorities.
They also sought cooperation from the Bangladesh government in this regard.
According to meeting sources, about 51,000 Bangladeshis have left their workplaces in the ME nation in the last five years.
Bangladesh has also sought cooperation from the Oman government so that its workers get better wages there.
Many times workers do not get due wages. So they flee workplaces and search better jobs in other sectors, they told the meeting.
When contacted, officials at the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment (MoEWOE) said they also requested the Oman delegation to take more workers from Bangladesh.
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