Slow G-2-G migration forces job seekers to take expensive routes

The government initiative to reduce migration cost has hardly yielded any positive result as lots of workers are still securing jobs abroad spending a large amount of money in absence of regular pace of migration.
Earlier, the government set the cost of migration at only Tk 33,000 each for obtaining jobs in Malaysia under a state arrangement. It also announced migration cost would not be more than Tk 20,000 for jobs in the Middle Eastern countries.
But so far only 2309 Bangladeshis got jobs in Malaysia under such arrangement, according to official figures. Besides, the aspirants are forced to
spend a large sum each to go to the Middle Eastern countries.   
The government has enlisted 1.4 million job-seekers for Malaysia. The fate of these registered people is now uncertain as the labourer-receiving country has already announced it will receive only 10,000 workers by 2014.
Due to lack of regular worker migration, jobless youths are going to different job destinations spending extra money in collaboration with middlemen and dishonest manpower recruiters.
In November, 2013, Malaysia and Bangladesh inked a deal on manpower recruitment. Malaysia was the much-awaited destination for Bangladeshi workers. The government hoped to send there 0.5 million workers a year.
A joint study titled 'Impact of Migration on Poverty' conducted by Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) and The University of Sussex said a significant number of job seekers went to Malaysia on tourist and student visas spending Tk 300,000 to Tk 400,000 each all over 2013.
The research also discovered that the aspiring migrant workers spent Tk 1.0 million to Tk 1.2 million for securing jobs in Saudi Arabia, and Tk 0.7 million to Tk 0.8 million for jobs in Qatar. Following the unavailability of a formal channel, workers are going to Malaysia by the sea route. They are also going to European countries via Iran, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia putting life at risk.
A large number of fortune-seekers were arrested while going to Malaysia by sea route in the recent years. Of them, many met accidents in the sea. Some 57 Bangladeshis were arrested by coastguard on 24 January.
Tasneem Siddiqui, founding chair of RMMRU, said as the government-to-government migration process was not functional, the Malaysian market has gone 'underground'. Workers are forced to take assistance of middlemen to get jobs.
"If people can go through the formal channel, the migration cost remains lower and the workers' outflow also increases," she said.
However, the RMMRU chair said the workers migrating through illegal ways are facing various ordeals and they can not apply for government support as they do not take official permission.
Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) secretary general Ali Haider Chowdhury said it is a simple logic that when people are forced to go abroad through an irregular process, the migration cost increases.
He said the government should create more jobs, so that these malpractices can be stopped.
When the government is unable to arrange safe migration despite huge job vacancies in foreign countries, job aspirants are forced to select illegal ways, he observed. Secretary to the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Zafar Ahmed Khan said his ministry cannot stop illegal migration by only putting in their own efforts. Other related ministries have to come forward in this regard, he noted.
If a united effort is put to work, irregular migration will stop. At the same time, the cost of migration will also come down, he added.
A total of 409,253 Bangladeshis got jobs in foreign countries in 2013. It was 607,798 in 2012