Lifting ban on manpower export to UAE

Bangladesh is considered lucky because of a consistent growth in its earnings from both exports and remittance inflows for more than two decades. In the last fiscal, the country saw a respectable growth in overall export receipts during the year, belying widespread fear about the possible impact of Rana Plaza disaster on apparel export. But it was not so in the case of remittance inflows. For the first time in many years, there was a decline, albeit a marginal one, in remittance earnings.  Expatriate workers did send money back home as usual. The factor responsible for the undesirable development about remittance inflows was the substantial decline in the outflow of manpower to the traditional markets in the Middle Eastern countries, namely Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait.
Kuwait had long ago stopped recruiting Bangladesh nationals. Saudi Arabia slashed recruitment of manpower from Bangladesh nationals for a variety of reasons. The UAE, too, stopped recruitment of construction workers from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan two years back following an untoward incident involving workers of these countries. India and Pakistan have reportedly resolved the issue through discussions with the UAE authorities; their construction workers are again being recruited by the UAE firms and companies. But the situation as far as the recruitment of Bangladesh workers is concerned has remained unchanged. Except for a few skilled workers, the UAE has not been allowing the recruitment of any Bangladesh worker.
What is more disturbing is the reluctance of the UAE government to issue visas to the Bangladesh nationals. Even officials of the government of Bangladesh are not being given visas. The virtual closure of the second most important manpower market has stirred up worries among the private sector recruiters who have appealed to the government to take immediate steps to help remove the barriers to sending Bangladesh workers to the UAE. But communication between the governments of the two countries for some unexplained reasons has so far remained weak. This is evident from the lack of response from the UAE government to a request from its counterpart in Bangladesh to arrange an official visit by the latter's manpower minister.
The UAE, as the recent developments indicate, is not happy with Bangladesh for some reasons that are not clearly known. Maybe the ministry of foreign affairs is aware of the same. The question is whether the ministry has done enough to remove the irritants, if there is any, and help resume the recruitment of Bangladesh workers to that country. The UAE government has reportedly embarked on the implementation of large infrastructure projects worth over $315 billion. It has also started employing foreign construction workers at a higher pace than before. Unless the undeclared ban now in place on the recruitment of its workers is lifted, Bangladesh is going to miss a great opportunity of having a slice of the ongoing construction boom in the UAE.
The remittance earnings play a very important role in the Bangladesh economy in general and poverty alleviation in particular. Despite substantial use of the remittance money for consumption purposes, it has been making a positive contribution to the economic activities in the country's rural areas. Bangladesh can hardly afford any fall in remittance earnings. Rather its inflow needs to be increased on a regular basis. But to make this happen, the government has to play a proactive role with private recruiters making all-out efforts to explore employment opportunities abroad.