Decline in overseas workers\\\' migration

A noticeable decline of workers' remittance inflows by the end of the last year, despite the commendable growth of the same until the middle of it, is certainly disconcerting for the economy. What is more worrisome is that there is no sign of quick reversal of this situation in the days ahead. Reports in the middle say, on a year-on basis, flow of remittance has experienced a marked fall for the first time in a decade in the just-concluded calendar year, 2013. Remittances came down by 2.39 per cent to $13.84 billion in 2013 from $14.18 billion a year ago. That the signs are ominous can be attested by the fact that the expatriate workers' remittance inflows to Bangladesh are far more than its total national foreign exchange reserve -- a situation similar to only a few such remittance-recipient countries.

The obvious reason readily attributable to this is the slowing down of temporary manpower migration, coupled with the long-lingering political turmoil. But beyond the obvious and the apparent, there are factors that need to be looked into, to find out the impeding elements. It is not at all difficult to discern that underlying the declining trend of workers' migration is the lack of required initiatives on the part of the relevant authorities to explore avenues for overseas job-seekers and to take advantage of the prospects at hand.

The concerned quarters believe that the opportunities that came Bangladesh's way last year were potentially bright to facilitate increased migration of workers, had the relevant authorities been equipped to handle those in a fitting manner. The decline is viewed as a result of the government's failure to stimulate labour markets in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait through diplomatic channels, on the one hand and to capitalise on the opportunities offered by Malaysia and Hong Kong, to name only a few, on the other. Malaysia, in particular, was a case in point. Despite the much-hyped talks on government-to-government (G2G) deal to ease job-seekers' difficulties in Malaysia, very little has emerged in real terms. Bureaucratic tangles were among the deterring factors. About the case with Hong Kong -- a new destination for migrant workers with large offers for semi-skilled jobs -- it has been reported that so far only 100 workers were able to avail the opportunity due to unavailability of training facilities required for the jobs. On the Middle Eastern front, Bangladesh could not take advantage of the opportunity of sending a large pool of construction workers to Qatar that the country needed for development of its infrastructure in connection with the hosting of World Cup Football 2022.

The highest movement of the country's migrant workers abroad was recorded in 2008 when more than 0.8 million employment-seekers went abroad with jobs. The numbers dropped slightly in 2009 but increased again in 2011 and 2012. The outflow in 2013 was far poorer than that of 2012. According to Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) data, year-on decline in number of outgoing workers in 2013 is to the tune of around two hundred thousand. The authorities concerned must sit up to look at the issue with all the resources at their disposal.