Getting over crisis in manpower export

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's hint at relaxing restrictions on private recruiting agencies is a right move at this time of difficulties in exporting manpower abroad. But she directed the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment (MoEWOE) to remain vigilant so that poor job-seekers are not exploited. There would be profit, but it should not be over hundred per cent to make the poor people paupers, she said. The decision is indeed in the right direction as the government cannot do business as she pointed out time and again in the past. What it can do is to plug all holes through which malpractices including deceit are committed.  Engagement of government officials in manpower recruitment might trigger the process of exploitation in a different way: fleecing of the poor job-seekers by another set of people. The worst consequences of deploying erstwhile BDR soldiers to run fair price shops (usually run by petty shopkeepers) during the 1/11 regime are still fresh in public memory.
Experts say the MoEWOE can verify, through all the concerned embassies abroad, all job letters to be procured by the members of the Bangladesh Association of Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) and then fix reasonable charges in consultation with them. The charges also can include expenditures incurred in securing job opportunities abroad and profit to be made by the private sector agencies. After all, despite bad image created by a section of dishonest manpower exporters, the BAIRA merits kudos for whatever breakthrough the country has so far made in manpower export. Most of the nine million workers now employed abroad were recruited by the private sector.
The country's expatriate workers are justifiably national heroes. Far away from their kith and kin at home, they toil day and night in foreign lands giving up worldly pleasures. They remit home their hard-earned money, which constitutes one of the two pillars on which the economy stands today for its sustenance, the other being readymade garment (RMG) exports. While the RMG will be in demand as long as human beings will wear clothes, employment of manpower is dependent on the needs of the population of the host countries. But one thing is certain that one day they will have to return home once population of the host countries start doing the jobs these workers are doing now. Moreover, all countries, now having resources, will face financial crunch with the passage of time.
Is there any long-term planning of the government to handle the situation against the backdrop of bulging national population looking for jobs? Or in case our expatriate workers start returning home once people of host countries no longer afford to employ foreign workers? Malaysia, where nearly one million Bangladeshi workers are employed, is not as resourceful as the Gulf countries with huge reserves of oil and gas are. Even Saudi Arabia where over 5 to 7 million Bangladeshi workers are working is now feeling the pinch of global crisis due to a fall in petroleum prices.
Desperation of unemployed people in Bangladesh is evident from the recent detention by the Coast Guards and the Navy of dozens of people who were trying fruitlessly to make risky sea voyages to Malaysia or Thailand for jobs. Analysts attribute such an illegal sea voyage to drying up of official channels for overseas jobs-either through the government or private recruiting agencies.
Reasons notwithstanding, the fact remains that Bangladesh is failing to send more workers abroad to traditional markets. According to the Bangladesh Bank, around 450,000 migrants managed overseas jobs in 2013, down by more than 33 per cent from 680,000 in 2012. On the other hand, the number of migrant workers returning to Bangladesh has also increased because the government could not resolve the problems related to the legal status of Bangladeshi migrants.

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