Recruiters blame air-fare, middlemen, bureaucracy for high migration cost
Friday, 11 September 2009
Mashiur Rahaman
Overseas recruiting agents Thursday defended high cost of migration, blaming bureaucratic red-tapism, brokers and excess air-fare for the rising expenditure being borne by poor Bangladeshi workers.
The World Bank late last month said a Bangladeshi worker spends an average US$2300 for availing a job in the Middle East and the South East Asian countries, forcing many to sell their land or borrow heavily to raise the cost.
According to the WB's study, some 830,000 Bangladesh workers who found jobs abroad in 2008 paid around US$2.00 billion dollars to recruiters and airlines, making the business of overseas recruitment as one of the most lucrative sectors in the country's economy.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in a recent report also blamed the country's 700 odd recruiting agencies and their group, the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agents (BAIRA), for the 'abnormal' cost of migration that contribute "forced labour and debt bondage".
BAIRA officials admitted that a Bangladeshi worker seeking job abroad pays more than what his counterpart in India, the Philippines and Pakistan shells out, but they squarely put the blame on local and foreign brokers, air-fare and the bureaucracy for the soaring cost.
"One-way air fare even under labour concession on Dhaka-Riyadh route costs Tk32,000, which is equivalent to two-way fare on the same route," Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, Joint Secretary General of BAIRA told the FE.
Noman said every outgoing worker has to pay Tk5,000 as travel and immigration taxes, Tk7,000 for passport, Tk2,500 medical clearance, Tk15,000 training fees and another Tk10,000 for other expenses.
The workers also bear some undocumented expenses including charges to the local middlemen and foreign brokers who helped procure visas, which account for a big slice of the recruitment expenditure, he said.
"In addition, there is visa processing cost at home, as a recruiter needs clearance from three ministries to send workers abroad. We have to pay at each of the three ministries to get the clearance," he added.
The government has said it would bring down the cost of migration down to Tk38,000 excluding air-fare, so that the country's job-hungry rural poor can avail overseas work at a cheaper cost.
But Noman said the government should first cut travel related costs, remove tax barriers and ease bureaucratic red tapism to achieve that goal.
"We don't want to charge extra amount from our workers. We will be glad if we can send them at the cheapest rate," said Noman.
According to government statistics, more than 6.5 million Bangladeshi now work abroad--- mostly in the Middle East --- since the country started sending its workers abroad in 1976.
Overseas recruiting agents Thursday defended high cost of migration, blaming bureaucratic red-tapism, brokers and excess air-fare for the rising expenditure being borne by poor Bangladeshi workers.
The World Bank late last month said a Bangladeshi worker spends an average US$2300 for availing a job in the Middle East and the South East Asian countries, forcing many to sell their land or borrow heavily to raise the cost.
According to the WB's study, some 830,000 Bangladesh workers who found jobs abroad in 2008 paid around US$2.00 billion dollars to recruiters and airlines, making the business of overseas recruitment as one of the most lucrative sectors in the country's economy.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in a recent report also blamed the country's 700 odd recruiting agencies and their group, the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agents (BAIRA), for the 'abnormal' cost of migration that contribute "forced labour and debt bondage".
BAIRA officials admitted that a Bangladeshi worker seeking job abroad pays more than what his counterpart in India, the Philippines and Pakistan shells out, but they squarely put the blame on local and foreign brokers, air-fare and the bureaucracy for the soaring cost.
"One-way air fare even under labour concession on Dhaka-Riyadh route costs Tk32,000, which is equivalent to two-way fare on the same route," Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, Joint Secretary General of BAIRA told the FE.
Noman said every outgoing worker has to pay Tk5,000 as travel and immigration taxes, Tk7,000 for passport, Tk2,500 medical clearance, Tk15,000 training fees and another Tk10,000 for other expenses.
The workers also bear some undocumented expenses including charges to the local middlemen and foreign brokers who helped procure visas, which account for a big slice of the recruitment expenditure, he said.
"In addition, there is visa processing cost at home, as a recruiter needs clearance from three ministries to send workers abroad. We have to pay at each of the three ministries to get the clearance," he added.
The government has said it would bring down the cost of migration down to Tk38,000 excluding air-fare, so that the country's job-hungry rural poor can avail overseas work at a cheaper cost.
But Noman said the government should first cut travel related costs, remove tax barriers and ease bureaucratic red tapism to achieve that goal.
"We don't want to charge extra amount from our workers. We will be glad if we can send them at the cheapest rate," said Noman.
According to government statistics, more than 6.5 million Bangladeshi now work abroad--- mostly in the Middle East --- since the country started sending its workers abroad in 1976.