How many foreigners stay in Bangladesh with or without job remains a riddle but an umpteen number of them repatriate their earnings in dollar and the outbound remittance further draws down the country's falling foreign-exchange reserves, sources say.
Official statistics show 27,842 foreign nationals staying in Bangladesh with jobs and on other purposes, who all send out money in outward remittance.
But independent findings show staggering figures--some 0.25 million quoted in a TIB survey--inclusive of huge undocumented ones working in firms and industries and development projects.
Economists and analysts see reflection of such gaps in demographic arithmetic in the improvisation with fiscal and monetary management as well as supply-chain mismatches. They also see security implications of such miscalculations.
Out of the total foreigners in government register, 21,208 are male and 6,634 female, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS)-conducted latest Population and Household Census showed.
Analysts say the number of foreign nationals in Bangladesh should be far higher as they are staying illegally even after the expiry of their visas, resulting in huge siphoning of foreign exchange.
Bangladesh has been struggling with falling foreign-exchange reserves since early this year as its official reserves decreased to nearly $19 billion last month (November), as per new modality of accounting.
Usually, the foreign workers, documented or otherwise, repatriate their incomes and wages to their native lands. A substantial amount of foreign exchange is spent on this account.
A report of the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) in 2020 showed some US$3.1 billion being illegally remitted from Bangladesh per annum, apart from other modes of outward remittance.
The illicit outflow cuts both way-it adds to fund flight and subtracts from due state revenue. "This siphoning of money is depriving the government exchequer of about Tk 120 billion as revenue each year," says the report.
At least 2.5 lakh (0.25 million) foreigners from 44 countries are employed in more than 20 trades in both regular and irregular ways in Bangladesh, the TIB report adds.
A World Bank-affiliated organisation's data showed that foreigners working in Bangladesh repatriated US$101 million legally in 2021.
But, insiders say the outward remittance will be no less than US$3.0 billion per year, which is creating an extra pressure on the dwindling forex reserves.
Foreigners staying here are mainly working in development projects, industries, services sector, national and international NGOs, and various private-sector organisations.
World Bank's Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) report has shown the foreigners remitted home $101 million in 2021 from Bangladesh, up 6.3 per cent from $95 million in 2020. It was $32 million in 2015, $41 million in 2016, $47 million in 2017, $57 million in 2018, and $83 million in 2019.
The outgoings accounted for 0.02 per cent of Bangladesh's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021, the WB data showed.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on June 13 this year informed the national parliament that nearly 20,000 foreign nationals from 115 countries were working in Bangladesh with work permits and visas.
According to the BBS's Population and Housing Census 2022, most of the foreigners are living in Dhaka Division while fewer in other divisions.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman told the lawmakers that some 1,750 Chinese live in Bangladesh. The breakdown of the rest are: 5,876 Indians, 2,468 Russians, 1,246 Sri Lankans, 924 South Koreans, 557 Japanese, 416 Pakistanis, 460 Filipinos, 399 Thais, 378 Belarusians, 269 Kazakhs, 168 Americans, 139 Koreans, 123 Malaysians and 108 Indonesians.
Earlier, sources said, the home ministry had intelligence in September 2022 that at least 97,695 nationals of India, China, the Philippines and different African countries continued to work in Bangladesh overstaying their visas, thereby posing risks to economy as well as security and social fabric of Bangladesh.
The report estimated that the government was losing revenue worth more than Tk 45 billion in the form of income tax from foreign nationals visiting or staying in the country with business, work, tourist and on-arrival visas.
The foreign nationals working in Bangladesh have to pay 27-percent income tax and then they can repatriate their income to their country.
Policy Research Institute (PRI) Executive Director Dr Ahsan H Mansur told the FE that the figure of foreign nationals working in Bangladesh would be much higher than the BBS count.
"Actually, every foreign national--legal or illegal--here repatriate their income to their home country, which is obviously creating pressure on Bangladesh's foreign- exchange reserves," he said.
"If skilled foreign manpower is required by the local organisations and companies, they should stay here legally. Then will it be easy for the central bank and the government to ensure better fiscal and monetary management," the economist observes.
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