Labour shortage and Rohingya population

A concerning trend has recently emerged in Bangladesh's labour market, particularly within the manual labour sector. During the Boro harvest season in the haor regions, farmers are struggling to find enough workers to harvest submerged paddy, despite offering high wages. Simultaneously, urban areas are grappling with severe manpower shortages for essential sanitation activities, such as maintaining and cleaning city drainage systems. Paradoxically, while the country faces these acute labour shortages, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees remain idle within our borders year after year, largely disconnected from any productive economic activity.
While Bangladesh generously provided sanctuary to this vast, displaced population on humanitarian grounds, their prolonged stay has inevitably placed a massive strain on our national economy. Remaining solely dependent on domestic and international aid, the presence of this large population is taking a heavy toll on the host community's local economy and environment. Furthermore, prolonged unemployment and the resulting frustration have pushed a segment of this population towards drug smuggling and other hazardous, criminal enterprises.
Given this reality, economic pragmatism demands that we explore alternative solutions. The pressing question is: Can we not channel this untapped workforce into sectors currently paralysed by severe labour shortages?
Relevant government authorities should seriously investigate this potential under a highly regulated policy framework.
With stringent monitoring, tight security, and fixed-term contractual agreements, employing this population in deficit areas-such as agriculture in the haor basin or municipal sanitation programmes-could prove to be a transformative initiative.
Such a move would yield dual benefits: bridging the critical gap in our domestic labour market while simultaneously reducing the refugees' absolute reliance on humanitarian aid.
Furthermore, engaging them in structured work could significantly curtail the rising crime rates within the camps by mitigating idleness and frustration. To alleviate the mounting pressure on the national economy and resolve pressing internal labor crises, policymakers must give this proposal a serious consideration it warrants.
Zamil Muhammad Ishraq
A web developer
Fulbaria, Mymensingh
ishraque.tech@gmail.com