Moribund BOESL sends 15000 abroad in 25 yrs

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A Z M Anas
BOESL, the state-owned recruiting agency, has managed to find employment for fewer than 15,000 Bangladeshis abroad since its inception in the mid-1980s, according to official statistics.
Between 1984 and 2008, data available with the Bureau of Manpower said the Bangladesh Overseas Employment Services Ltd (BOESL) was able to deploy only 14,800 Bangladeshis seeking openings abroad, making up a trifling 1.0 per cent of the country's overseas employment market.
By contrast, private recruiting agencies and social networks-or friends and family members-took
the lead in the recruitment market estimated at US$2.0 billion annually, sending some 6.2 million job seekers abroad.
BOESL, which had a budget of Tk 20 million in 2009 financial year, publicises the availability of Bangladeshi workers in foreign countries.
In 1984, the BOESL sent 157 Bangladeshis, mostly professionals, abroad while private agents sent 32,460 and social networks 24,097 during the same period.
Last year, the government agency facilitated the highest 2,172 jobs when 875,000 Bangladeshis went abroad with work permits, the bulk of which availed opportunity through the social network.
Official data say about 60 per cent of Bangladeshi migrants migrate on their own, 39 per cent with the help of recruiters, and only one per cent via government and other channels.
A recent World Bank study also supported this.
To obtain overseas jobs, "In little more than one half the cases or 54 per cent, it was friends and relatives in the destination country that played the primary role," a World Bank economist Hasan Zaman wrote in a paper, co-authored with Manohar Sharma.

Dr Zaman who is doing research on international migration and poverty said this factor is especially strong outside Dhaka and Chittagong--more likely due to the tight-knit Bangladeshi community in the United Kingdom originally from Sylhet.
But Phillip Martin, an academic of the University of California-Davis, disputed the findings, saying most of the 60 per cent who leave the country 'on their own' actually migrate with the help of private recruiting agents who coach them to say in that way.
Martin who will present a Bangladesh case study at this week's Greece forum on migration and development said: "By going 'independently,' the government loses a tool to check that the foreign job is genuine, and 'independent migrants' have little recourse if the foreign job turns out to be something other than promised".
Officials at the overseas employment ministry said the performance of BOESL has never reached the satisfactory level and noted that the government is examining ways to restructure the agency.
"A massive restructuring is underway. We are planning to inject new momentum into the state body," an official said.
But an official at BOESL defended its role, saying it is a non-profit agency and receives no incentive from the government for its activities.
"Workers who go out through our channel don't face fraud, pay less. This is our strength," the official added.
For decades, remittance sent home by international migrants has played an increasingly important role in the economy, helping to cut poverty and ease pressure on the domestic labour market. It also boosts foreign exchange reserves and stimulates domestic demand.
In 2009 fiscal, remittance amounted to $9.7 billion, accounting for over 10 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product) and Bangladesh is now among the top ten remittance recipient nations in the world.
Almost two-thirds of Bangladesh's remittances originate from the oil-rich middle-eastern nations, followed by the United States.