FE Report
Bangladesh's overseas employment grew by one percent in 2014 than the previous year, mainly due to an increase in the outflow of female workers, said a report of the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU).
It also said the overall international labour migration has increased this year,
but it is about 32 per cent lower than that of 2012 calendar year.
The report titled 'International Labour Migration from Bangladesh 2014: Achievement and Challenges' was launched at a press conference at the National Press Club on Sunday.
The country received remittance amounting to US$ 14.50 billion till December 19. If the inflow continues, the amount will stand at about US$ 15 billion at the end of the year, reflecting a 5.3 per cent growth over that of the previous year, the report also mentioned.
It said despite a lower migration trend, inbound remittance has increased because of different initiatives by the Bangladesh Bank, like - reduction in transfer rate, road-show in the Middle-East countries, and remittance transfer through mobile solution etc.
While presenting the report, RMMRU founding chair Tasnim Siddique mentioned that the number of labour migration from Bangladesh was 411,000 till December 22, 2014, whereas it was 409,253 in 2013 and 607,798 in 2012.
She said the number of female overseas workers has been increasing significantly since 2012.
She noted that some 67,583 female workers secured employment abroad till November 2014, which is 17.70 per cent of the country's total migration.
"Considering this we can recognize 2014 as the female migration year," she mentioned.
A total of 343,845 female workers got foreign jobs from 1991 to 2014, the RMMRU chair added, quoting the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) data.
Like last year the maximum number of migration was to a few countries like Oman, Qatar and Singapore. The female migration was mainly to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jordan, Lebanon, Oman and Qatar.
The ratio of skilled overseas Bangladeshi workers increased by 16 per cent in the ongoing calendar year compared to that of the previous year. The number of skilled workers was 35.78 per cent of the total number in 2014, while 19.94 per cent in 2013.
But Tasnim Siddique said a big portion of the skilled workers is female, so overall skilled manpower did not increase.
Like 2013 Comilla secured the top position in the list of source areas with 9.99 per cent of the total migration, and Chittagong second with 6.62 per cent.
Over the year a large number of aspirants went abroad through illegal channels, mainly via sea route.
According to a report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) published in July, the incident of migration by trawlers has been increasing day by day, as the government did not take any action in this connection.
Report writing on international labour migration by different media houses has increased nearly 30 per cent in 2014, which indicated that the issue is getting importance.
Rina Roy, director (rights division) of Manusher Jonno Foundation, and Merina Sultana programme manager of RMMRU, among others, were present at the press conference.
