Global recession may cut manpower export to a half

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Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agency (BAIRA) feared Monday that the global financial crisis might take its toll on the country's manpower export bringing it down to less than a half to about four hundred thousand this year if the crisis prolongs, reports UNB.

Some 875,055 workers were dispatched to different recipient countries last year fetching 9.02 billion US dollars.

"But due to fall in oil price and economic recession in the West, workers' recipient countries have either scrapped their development activities or trimmed their development projects," BAIRA President Golam Mostafa told a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity.

In addition to stoppage of issuing new visas, he said, a good number of expatriate workers might get back home from some countries.

The BAIRA president further said the remittance might not be seriously affected this year because the workers, if they lose their jobs, would return home with money. He thinks that remittance earning may be $1.0 billion less than that of the previous year.

Mostafa suggested that instead of getting scared, activities of Bangladesh missions in labour recipient countries needed to be activated and that should convince the employers that the workers should not be sent back as they would face workers shortage as soon as the temporary phase of recession was over.

He said BAIRA members were in constant touch with employers so they did not send back the Bangladeshi workers who also needed to keep patience and should not leave their respective workplaces.

Mostafa said they were also trying to transfer the workers from one closing down project to another that was in need of workers.

The BAIRA president appreciated the foreign minister's meeting with ambassadors of the Middle Eastern countries on February 15 and her request to recruit fresh workers from Bangladesh. He said such initiatives would bring positive results to manpower export.

Mostafa also praised the Prime Minister for her government's quick initiative to set up Expatriate Welfare Bank responding to a proposal of BAIRA.