Deportation of several hundred workers from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will not affect the growth of remittances from abroad as overseas jobs for Bangladeshis are showing a booming trend, officials and experts said Monday.
They said this after statistics showed that record over half a million Bangladeshis secured overseas jobs in the first seven months (January-July) of this year in more than 100 countries despite employment slowdown in some Middle Eastern and Asian states.
"We don't see any indication affecting the growth of remittances. We issued clearances to 564,098 people in the first seven months to take up overseas jobs against 424,229 in the same period of last year," a senior official in the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment said.
According to the statistics of the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) the country's manpower export marked 32.97 per cent growth in the first seven months of this year compared to the same period of the last year, the official added.
Of the total job aspirants, 88,202 Bangladeshis found jobs in July, 98,002 in June, 82739 in May, 72,257 in April, 59,183 in March, 71,716 in February and 91,999 in January this year.
Senior research fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a local think-tank, Uttam Kumar Deb said deportation of several hundred workers, compared to millions of Bangladeshis working abroad, is very negligible to create any adverse impact on growth of remittances.
But, he said the interest of workers abroad should be properly protected as their earnings help the balance of payment of the country to be in positive territory.
Over 5.6 million Bangladeshis, living and working in over 100 countries, sent home $7.939 billion remittances in the fiscal 2007-08 against $5.978 billion in 2006-07 fiscal.
Secretary General of the Bangladesh International Recruiting Agency (BAIRA) Kazi Mohammed Mafizur Rahman said despite a decline in recruitment by Kuwait, overseas jobs for Bangladeshis in other countries remained normal.
Of total overseas employment in the first seven months, a BMET official said 117,309 found jobs in Saudi Arabia, 252,030 in UAE, 76,355 in Malaysia, 34,675 in Oman and 33,244 in Singapore.
"We have come to know that situation in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have become normal. There is no report of fresh chaos of workers and detention," he said.
Meanwhile, another FE report adds: Bangladeshis working abroad sent home a record US$829 million in the first month of the current fiscal, marking a 46.27 per cent growth over the corresponding period of the last fiscal, officials said.
The remittance earnings in July came as a continuation to last fiscal's trend and record inflow of $7.939 billion. The growth in 2007-08 was 32.38 per cent over the previous fiscal.
