Manpower export to Kuwait yet to pick up
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Syful Islam
Bangladesh is yet to cash in on the opportunities -- that were expected to be opened up following a deal that was signed between the two countries during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to Kuwait February last year -- for sending a sizeable number of additional manpower to the gulf Kingdom, industry insiders said. Only 48 Bangladeshi jobseekers could secure employment last year in Kuwait, and the number still remains very nominal until this April. Labour and Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain signed the deal on economic and technology cooperation in the presence of Sheikh Hasina and her Kuwaiti counterpart. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had requested the Kuwaiti Prime Minister to intervene in lifting an earlier put-on-hold or stay order, imposed on recruitment of Bangladeshi workers in October 2006. She said some 250,000 Bangladeshis are presently employed in Kuwait. Besides, a number of hardworking and law-abiding Bangladeshi workers are eager to go there. President of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) Mohammed Abul Basher told the FE that the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment and the Bangladesh Embassy in Kuwait should take appropriate and timely follow-up actions on the deal, so that manpower export from Bangladesh to Kuwait would pick up. "Neither the ministry nor the embassy is sincere about facilitating the re-opening of the Kuwaiti job market to the Bangladeshi workers. We are applying our own means to send our jobseekers there," he said. Mr Basher said a BAIRA delegation visited the Kingdom two months back and held talks with the recruiters there for starting hiring of Bangladeshi manpower on a larger scale. "But I think the government's intervention is very critical here," he said. Mr Basher said BAIRA formally sought the government's intervention in this connection recently. The secretary of the ministry also assured them of taking care of the issue. The BAIRA president stated that the minister concerned was yet to be pro-active on this front. "We are not receiving the cooperation from the minister," he added. "The minister has recently visited Qatar, and is planning to visit Mauritius soon. He even didn't invite us to join as members of his delegation. We could have effectively discussed the issue, if we were included in the official delegation." A total of 479,619 Bangladeshis secured jobs in Kuwait from 1976 to 2010. The number is about seven per cent of the total foreign employments for Bangladeshi overseas workforce abroad since the independence. When contacted, Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment secretary Dr Zafar Ahmed Khan acknowledged the embassy's reluctance to follow up the issue by sending large-scale manpower to Kuwait. "You know how inactive our officials abroad are. The mentality of our bureaucrats as a whole is not that much pro-people. The embassy officials have to be more labour-friendly," he said.
Bangladesh is yet to cash in on the opportunities -- that were expected to be opened up following a deal that was signed between the two countries during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to Kuwait February last year -- for sending a sizeable number of additional manpower to the gulf Kingdom, industry insiders said. Only 48 Bangladeshi jobseekers could secure employment last year in Kuwait, and the number still remains very nominal until this April. Labour and Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain signed the deal on economic and technology cooperation in the presence of Sheikh Hasina and her Kuwaiti counterpart. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had requested the Kuwaiti Prime Minister to intervene in lifting an earlier put-on-hold or stay order, imposed on recruitment of Bangladeshi workers in October 2006. She said some 250,000 Bangladeshis are presently employed in Kuwait. Besides, a number of hardworking and law-abiding Bangladeshi workers are eager to go there. President of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) Mohammed Abul Basher told the FE that the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment and the Bangladesh Embassy in Kuwait should take appropriate and timely follow-up actions on the deal, so that manpower export from Bangladesh to Kuwait would pick up. "Neither the ministry nor the embassy is sincere about facilitating the re-opening of the Kuwaiti job market to the Bangladeshi workers. We are applying our own means to send our jobseekers there," he said. Mr Basher said a BAIRA delegation visited the Kingdom two months back and held talks with the recruiters there for starting hiring of Bangladeshi manpower on a larger scale. "But I think the government's intervention is very critical here," he said. Mr Basher said BAIRA formally sought the government's intervention in this connection recently. The secretary of the ministry also assured them of taking care of the issue. The BAIRA president stated that the minister concerned was yet to be pro-active on this front. "We are not receiving the cooperation from the minister," he added. "The minister has recently visited Qatar, and is planning to visit Mauritius soon. He even didn't invite us to join as members of his delegation. We could have effectively discussed the issue, if we were included in the official delegation." A total of 479,619 Bangladeshis secured jobs in Kuwait from 1976 to 2010. The number is about seven per cent of the total foreign employments for Bangladeshi overseas workforce abroad since the independence. When contacted, Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment secretary Dr Zafar Ahmed Khan acknowledged the embassy's reluctance to follow up the issue by sending large-scale manpower to Kuwait. "You know how inactive our officials abroad are. The mentality of our bureaucrats as a whole is not that much pro-people. The embassy officials have to be more labour-friendly," he said.