Expanding the manpower export market worldwide
Sunday, 9 December 2007
Shahiduzzaman Khan writes
The present interim government has charted out a seven-point strategy to ensure the well-being of the Bangladeshi workers abroad and expand the manpower-export market worldwide by removing the prevailing hurdles. The strategy includes exploring new manpower export markets in the Scandinavian, European and East European countries like Norway, Sweden and Romania.
The plan also includes extension of the existing markets in the Middle-East, including Libya, enhancing skills in the English language, exporting manpower from Monga-affected areas, ensuring proper utilisation of remittances, ensuring strong monitoring to check fraud in manpower export, and working together with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Migration Organisation (IMO). The government has adopted the strategy as it believes that the country's prime foreign currency earnings would come from the manpower-export sector.
The Indian Institute of Management recently conducted a research on 'making Bangladesh a leading manpower exporter: Chasing a dream of $30 billion annual migrant remittance by 2015'. According to the study report, Bangladesh has to target Spain, France, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, and Austria for manpower export on a priority basis as these countries have high remittance potential but low presence of Bangladeshis. The report said, in the short and medium terms, Bangladesh should target occupations such as agriculture professionals, clerical and secretarial jobs, accountant, technicians, chefs and caterers, carpenters, masons, drivers, and electricians. But, after establishing high-quality training institutes, the country should export doctors, nurses, financial experts, and managers in the long run, the report added.
The caretaker government is expected to deal with the manpower-export business in the new manpower markets taking lesson from Malaysian incidents. A South Korean delegation will be arriving in Dhaka this week to discuss manpower import from Bangladesh. An agreement would be signed between the Korean Human Resource Department (HRD) and Bangladesh's state-owned recruiting agency Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Service Limited (BOESL). South Korea is expected to recruit about 3,000 workers. Those who are now in Korea will get priority in recruitment as they have command over Korean language. The Malaysian government is yet to convey any decision about suspending recruitment of Bangladeshi workers. Despite that, on an average, about 700 workers are leaving for Malaysia daily and the government is working on the issue so that the market could be resumed. The question of withdrawal of Malaysian ban on Bangladeshi manpower is being discussed at the highest level between the two governments now.
According to an estimate, a total of 526,171 Bangladeshi workers have gone abroad for jobs since the present caretaker government assumed office in January 2007. Some 764,903 workers were issued outgoing permits in last 11 months, of which 2,38,000 were waiting to fly. This figure is the highest in any time in the country's history.
The country received US$ 5.78 billion (Tk 40,323 crore) in remittance until November 22. If the trend continues, the remittance flow is expected to exceed US$ 6.0 billion-mark. Sustaining the remittance growth has become a major challenge for Bangladesh as the development dynamics in the Middle East has been changing fast, adopting latest technologies and requiring highly skilled workers in almost all sectors. The country needs to progressively change the country mix and increase skill level of its migrant workers to sustain its remittance growth.
Since fiscal year 1999-2000, Bangladesh has received around 85 per cent of its remittance from only five countries - Saudi Arabia, the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. In the last fiscal year, these five countries accounted for more than $5.0 billion of the total remittance inflow of $5.98 billion. But, recently the development dynamics in the three Middle East countries has been changing rapidly, posing a threat to Bangladesh's manpower exports.
Most of the Middle Eastern countries including Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE can now be compared with any developed country and mere proficiency in Arabic is not enough to get jobs in those countries in the future. An adequate number of international-standard vocational and training institutes should be set up to groom the future workforce destined for the Middle East. Non-governmental organisations and private entrepreneurs can establish such institutes, which need to be affiliated with similar institutes in the developed countries, with the government playing a facilitating role. Over 4.5 million Bangladeshis are now working abroad.
Meanwhile. the government is planning to bring about major reforms in manpower export sector including changes in emigration rules and procedures. Although overseas employment is a crucial sector, it is yet to get adequate attention. A number of steps are now underway to improve this situation drastically. As part of the process, a committee headed by an official of the ministry has been formed to monitor high cost of migration to Malaysia.
Another committee is looking into the overall situation in manpower business and identify the problems and irregularities in this sector. And the government is also communicating with the International Organisation for Migration for further consultation on cross-border issues that affect labour migration. Experts on manpower businesses and migration say the cost of migration becomes high because of sharp competition among recruiting agencies for buying job demand letters or visas from employers in the manpower importing countries.
Manpower brokers or sub-agents at home also realise huge amounts of money, sometimes even more than the recruiting agent's profit, from overseas job seekers. Finding no other alternatives, these job-seekers collect money through loans at high rates of interest or sale of land. As per normal procedures, workers sign contract papers that describe wages, other facilities and working conditions. But a section of manpower brokers do not care for all this and send workers just as travellers. Unscrupulous recruiting agencies also make fake contract papers, showing exaggerated wages and facilities. Such undocumented workers are either deported from the manpower importing countries, or become illegal and work under inhuman conditions if allowed to stay there. In many cases, employers give the workers new contract papers with poor wages and less facilities. Very recently, the interim government took punitive measures against 200 recruiting agencies for their alleged fraudulent practices in manpower export.
The emigration ordinance needs to be made more comprehensive. With such realities, a large number of Bangladeshi workers cannot benefit from cross-border migration for jobs. The government has already made it mandatory for workers to present contract papers and money receipts for payments made to recruiting agencies when they attend briefing sessions at the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET). The agencies also must select workers from the database of BMET for sending them abroad. The government is also considering an option if manpower brokers could be brought under a legal framework to prevent them from cheating overseas job seekers. It is also expected to introduce a strict system to monitor activities of the manpower recruiting agencies so that none could cheat people seeking employment abroad.
The present interim government has charted out a seven-point strategy to ensure the well-being of the Bangladeshi workers abroad and expand the manpower-export market worldwide by removing the prevailing hurdles. The strategy includes exploring new manpower export markets in the Scandinavian, European and East European countries like Norway, Sweden and Romania.
The plan also includes extension of the existing markets in the Middle-East, including Libya, enhancing skills in the English language, exporting manpower from Monga-affected areas, ensuring proper utilisation of remittances, ensuring strong monitoring to check fraud in manpower export, and working together with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Migration Organisation (IMO). The government has adopted the strategy as it believes that the country's prime foreign currency earnings would come from the manpower-export sector.
The Indian Institute of Management recently conducted a research on 'making Bangladesh a leading manpower exporter: Chasing a dream of $30 billion annual migrant remittance by 2015'. According to the study report, Bangladesh has to target Spain, France, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, and Austria for manpower export on a priority basis as these countries have high remittance potential but low presence of Bangladeshis. The report said, in the short and medium terms, Bangladesh should target occupations such as agriculture professionals, clerical and secretarial jobs, accountant, technicians, chefs and caterers, carpenters, masons, drivers, and electricians. But, after establishing high-quality training institutes, the country should export doctors, nurses, financial experts, and managers in the long run, the report added.
The caretaker government is expected to deal with the manpower-export business in the new manpower markets taking lesson from Malaysian incidents. A South Korean delegation will be arriving in Dhaka this week to discuss manpower import from Bangladesh. An agreement would be signed between the Korean Human Resource Department (HRD) and Bangladesh's state-owned recruiting agency Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Service Limited (BOESL). South Korea is expected to recruit about 3,000 workers. Those who are now in Korea will get priority in recruitment as they have command over Korean language. The Malaysian government is yet to convey any decision about suspending recruitment of Bangladeshi workers. Despite that, on an average, about 700 workers are leaving for Malaysia daily and the government is working on the issue so that the market could be resumed. The question of withdrawal of Malaysian ban on Bangladeshi manpower is being discussed at the highest level between the two governments now.
According to an estimate, a total of 526,171 Bangladeshi workers have gone abroad for jobs since the present caretaker government assumed office in January 2007. Some 764,903 workers were issued outgoing permits in last 11 months, of which 2,38,000 were waiting to fly. This figure is the highest in any time in the country's history.
The country received US$ 5.78 billion (Tk 40,323 crore) in remittance until November 22. If the trend continues, the remittance flow is expected to exceed US$ 6.0 billion-mark. Sustaining the remittance growth has become a major challenge for Bangladesh as the development dynamics in the Middle East has been changing fast, adopting latest technologies and requiring highly skilled workers in almost all sectors. The country needs to progressively change the country mix and increase skill level of its migrant workers to sustain its remittance growth.
Since fiscal year 1999-2000, Bangladesh has received around 85 per cent of its remittance from only five countries - Saudi Arabia, the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. In the last fiscal year, these five countries accounted for more than $5.0 billion of the total remittance inflow of $5.98 billion. But, recently the development dynamics in the three Middle East countries has been changing rapidly, posing a threat to Bangladesh's manpower exports.
Most of the Middle Eastern countries including Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE can now be compared with any developed country and mere proficiency in Arabic is not enough to get jobs in those countries in the future. An adequate number of international-standard vocational and training institutes should be set up to groom the future workforce destined for the Middle East. Non-governmental organisations and private entrepreneurs can establish such institutes, which need to be affiliated with similar institutes in the developed countries, with the government playing a facilitating role. Over 4.5 million Bangladeshis are now working abroad.
Meanwhile. the government is planning to bring about major reforms in manpower export sector including changes in emigration rules and procedures. Although overseas employment is a crucial sector, it is yet to get adequate attention. A number of steps are now underway to improve this situation drastically. As part of the process, a committee headed by an official of the ministry has been formed to monitor high cost of migration to Malaysia.
Another committee is looking into the overall situation in manpower business and identify the problems and irregularities in this sector. And the government is also communicating with the International Organisation for Migration for further consultation on cross-border issues that affect labour migration. Experts on manpower businesses and migration say the cost of migration becomes high because of sharp competition among recruiting agencies for buying job demand letters or visas from employers in the manpower importing countries.
Manpower brokers or sub-agents at home also realise huge amounts of money, sometimes even more than the recruiting agent's profit, from overseas job seekers. Finding no other alternatives, these job-seekers collect money through loans at high rates of interest or sale of land. As per normal procedures, workers sign contract papers that describe wages, other facilities and working conditions. But a section of manpower brokers do not care for all this and send workers just as travellers. Unscrupulous recruiting agencies also make fake contract papers, showing exaggerated wages and facilities. Such undocumented workers are either deported from the manpower importing countries, or become illegal and work under inhuman conditions if allowed to stay there. In many cases, employers give the workers new contract papers with poor wages and less facilities. Very recently, the interim government took punitive measures against 200 recruiting agencies for their alleged fraudulent practices in manpower export.
The emigration ordinance needs to be made more comprehensive. With such realities, a large number of Bangladeshi workers cannot benefit from cross-border migration for jobs. The government has already made it mandatory for workers to present contract papers and money receipts for payments made to recruiting agencies when they attend briefing sessions at the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET). The agencies also must select workers from the database of BMET for sending them abroad. The government is also considering an option if manpower brokers could be brought under a legal framework to prevent them from cheating overseas job seekers. It is also expected to introduce a strict system to monitor activities of the manpower recruiting agencies so that none could cheat people seeking employment abroad.