Keeping the lifeline unaffected
Shamsul Huq Zahid | Monday, 21 July 2008
The country remains indebted to expatriate Bangladeshis. For without the money they send home it would have been really hard for the government to finance the ever-increasing import bills and maintain a reserve enough to meet import requirements for, at least, 2.5 months.
The remittance by the expatriate workers has been rising every year and it is expected to reach the US dollar 10 billion mark this year. And the oil-rich Middle Eastern (ME) countries, with Saudi Arabia being at the top, remain to be the main employers of the Bangladeshi workforce.
The oil-rich countries have largely remained unscathed by the ongoing economic slowdown that has hit most countries across the globe because of soaring prices of oil, a factor largely responsible for the slowdown. The oil-rich Arab countries, now basking in the oil price boom, are investing their wealth in the construction of various infrastructures. Thus, when other countries are cutting jobs, the ME countries are importing manpower in larger numbers. As a part of this process, Bangladesh last year exported the largest number of workers with jobs abroad.
But indications are there that the situation would not remain as rosy as it is now in the coming days. There could be a reduced outward flow of manpower and hence the remittance soon. The ME countries are now interested more in employing skilled manpower and getting rid of the unskilled workers.
Unfortunately, most Bangladeshi workers are not adequately educated and unskilled. So they would have to bear the main brunt if the ME countries go for retrenching the unskilled foreign workers. Such a development would be devastating for the country.
The Saudi Arabia has already decided not to import any unskilled worker from Bangladesh. Besides, if the Saudi authorities implement its decision relating to the quota for Bangladesh in terms of manpower, thousands of Bangladeshi workers would have to leave that country.
Despite repeated reminders by the media, the government has not felt the need for building up skilled manpower and export the same. An uneducated and unskilled worker abroad is looked down upon and given low wages. A country dependent on foreign labourers has to pay relatively higher wages to the skilled workers and cannot throwaway such workers at will. But the same does not apply in case of unskilled workers since such workers are found in abundance across the globe.
The potentials of manpower export by Bangladesh could not be exploited properly to a great extent due to the indifference on the part of our missions abroad and a section of unscrupulous manpower recruiting agents.
Bangladesh missions in many countries do not seriously explore the possibilities of employing Bangladesh workers. Nor they keep the foreign office updated about the developments about the labour situation. Expatriate Bangladeshis have lots to complain about the officials of the missions, particularly in the ME countries and Malaysia. The officials concerned in these missions are, allegedly, less responsive to the needs of the workers and involved in irregularities.
Yet another problem that has both undermined the image of the country abroad and put thousands of innocent job seekers in trouble is deception by the manpower recruiting agents.
Stories are galore about such deception. Hundreds of people seeking jobs abroad have become paupers in the absence proper government vigil and necessary actions on the part of the law enforcing agencies.
However, in many cases, the jobseekers are partly responsible for their own misfortune. Despite repeated incidents of fraud by fake manpower agents, jobseekers in many cases do not feel the necessity of checking the authenticity of the manpower agents and their recruitment procedures with the government departments concerned. The jobseekers, the majority of whom come from rural areas, are found to be in a hurry to agree to whatever conditions offered by the manpower recruiting agencies.
This indifference on the part of the government as well as the jobseekers has rather encouraged the dishonest manpower recruiters even to put the life of the jobseekers on the line.
Besides, hundreds of jobseekers have either been refused entry or put behind the bar in alien land for carrying forged visas or passports supplied by the manpower agents. In some cases, the local Bangladesh missions are not even aware of such arrests.
The Saudi Ambassador in Bangladesh speaking at a press conference in Dhaka recently blamed the local manpower recruiting agencies for the sufferings of the Bangladeshi workers in his country. He said the recruiting agents do not go by the conditions laid down in the agreements between them and the employers while sending people to Saudi Arabia. It is because of the manpower agents, Bangladeshi workers get salaries lower than that received by workers from other South Asian countries.
It should be the job of the government to punish the manpower recruiting agents who are deceiving the job-seekers. Unfortunately, the government has been a passive onlooker of the unwanted developments in the manpower sector. The only step it has taken against errant agents is the cancellation of their licences. This is no punishment compared to the crime they are committing. Unscrupulous agents do deserve harsher punishment, including prison sentence.
So far manpower export is concerned, signs are ominous. The ME countries, the traditional workplace for the Bangladeshi expatriates, are showing changes in their attitudes. They may not be as accommodative as they are now within a couple of years. The introduction of quota by the Saudi authorities and restriction on the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers following the murder of a Bahrain national do indicate a change of mind as far as recruitment of workers from Bangladesh is concerned.
So, it is high time for the government to prepare a package plan to keep the lifeline of remittance money unaffected. Diplomatic efforts to find out new employment avenues and consolidate the existing ones should be at the top of that package plan. The second most important element of the plan should be building up an appropriate mechanism to help export more skilled manpower.
Given the important role the remittance money plays in the country's balance of payments (BoP) the government cannot be indifferent to the need for streamlining the manpower export. It will have to play a proactive role under the given circumstances.
...................................
[email protected]
The remittance by the expatriate workers has been rising every year and it is expected to reach the US dollar 10 billion mark this year. And the oil-rich Middle Eastern (ME) countries, with Saudi Arabia being at the top, remain to be the main employers of the Bangladeshi workforce.
The oil-rich countries have largely remained unscathed by the ongoing economic slowdown that has hit most countries across the globe because of soaring prices of oil, a factor largely responsible for the slowdown. The oil-rich Arab countries, now basking in the oil price boom, are investing their wealth in the construction of various infrastructures. Thus, when other countries are cutting jobs, the ME countries are importing manpower in larger numbers. As a part of this process, Bangladesh last year exported the largest number of workers with jobs abroad.
But indications are there that the situation would not remain as rosy as it is now in the coming days. There could be a reduced outward flow of manpower and hence the remittance soon. The ME countries are now interested more in employing skilled manpower and getting rid of the unskilled workers.
Unfortunately, most Bangladeshi workers are not adequately educated and unskilled. So they would have to bear the main brunt if the ME countries go for retrenching the unskilled foreign workers. Such a development would be devastating for the country.
The Saudi Arabia has already decided not to import any unskilled worker from Bangladesh. Besides, if the Saudi authorities implement its decision relating to the quota for Bangladesh in terms of manpower, thousands of Bangladeshi workers would have to leave that country.
Despite repeated reminders by the media, the government has not felt the need for building up skilled manpower and export the same. An uneducated and unskilled worker abroad is looked down upon and given low wages. A country dependent on foreign labourers has to pay relatively higher wages to the skilled workers and cannot throwaway such workers at will. But the same does not apply in case of unskilled workers since such workers are found in abundance across the globe.
The potentials of manpower export by Bangladesh could not be exploited properly to a great extent due to the indifference on the part of our missions abroad and a section of unscrupulous manpower recruiting agents.
Bangladesh missions in many countries do not seriously explore the possibilities of employing Bangladesh workers. Nor they keep the foreign office updated about the developments about the labour situation. Expatriate Bangladeshis have lots to complain about the officials of the missions, particularly in the ME countries and Malaysia. The officials concerned in these missions are, allegedly, less responsive to the needs of the workers and involved in irregularities.
Yet another problem that has both undermined the image of the country abroad and put thousands of innocent job seekers in trouble is deception by the manpower recruiting agents.
Stories are galore about such deception. Hundreds of people seeking jobs abroad have become paupers in the absence proper government vigil and necessary actions on the part of the law enforcing agencies.
However, in many cases, the jobseekers are partly responsible for their own misfortune. Despite repeated incidents of fraud by fake manpower agents, jobseekers in many cases do not feel the necessity of checking the authenticity of the manpower agents and their recruitment procedures with the government departments concerned. The jobseekers, the majority of whom come from rural areas, are found to be in a hurry to agree to whatever conditions offered by the manpower recruiting agencies.
This indifference on the part of the government as well as the jobseekers has rather encouraged the dishonest manpower recruiters even to put the life of the jobseekers on the line.
Besides, hundreds of jobseekers have either been refused entry or put behind the bar in alien land for carrying forged visas or passports supplied by the manpower agents. In some cases, the local Bangladesh missions are not even aware of such arrests.
The Saudi Ambassador in Bangladesh speaking at a press conference in Dhaka recently blamed the local manpower recruiting agencies for the sufferings of the Bangladeshi workers in his country. He said the recruiting agents do not go by the conditions laid down in the agreements between them and the employers while sending people to Saudi Arabia. It is because of the manpower agents, Bangladeshi workers get salaries lower than that received by workers from other South Asian countries.
It should be the job of the government to punish the manpower recruiting agents who are deceiving the job-seekers. Unfortunately, the government has been a passive onlooker of the unwanted developments in the manpower sector. The only step it has taken against errant agents is the cancellation of their licences. This is no punishment compared to the crime they are committing. Unscrupulous agents do deserve harsher punishment, including prison sentence.
So far manpower export is concerned, signs are ominous. The ME countries, the traditional workplace for the Bangladeshi expatriates, are showing changes in their attitudes. They may not be as accommodative as they are now within a couple of years. The introduction of quota by the Saudi authorities and restriction on the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers following the murder of a Bahrain national do indicate a change of mind as far as recruitment of workers from Bangladesh is concerned.
So, it is high time for the government to prepare a package plan to keep the lifeline of remittance money unaffected. Diplomatic efforts to find out new employment avenues and consolidate the existing ones should be at the top of that package plan. The second most important element of the plan should be building up an appropriate mechanism to help export more skilled manpower.
Given the important role the remittance money plays in the country's balance of payments (BoP) the government cannot be indifferent to the need for streamlining the manpower export. It will have to play a proactive role under the given circumstances.
...................................
[email protected]