Thailand recruits 50,000 Bangladeshi workers soon

Thailand's labour market will soon open up creating job opportunities for 50,000 Bangladeshi workers in fishing and construction sectors.
Stating this to the FE, Bangladesh Ambassador to Thailand Kazi Imtiaz Hossain said, the draft of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to recruit Bangladeshi workers has already been finalised. The MoU is expected to be signed after getting approval from the Thai cabinet.
"It (draft MoU) is in final stage. We hope that after its signing, scope for sending about 50,000 workers will be created in the leading frozen food exporting country under both government-to-government and private arrangement," he said.
The government has taken the initiative to send workers to Thailand two years ago after the country opened up its job market in fishing and construction sectors for different countries including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Vietnam. The country is now recruiting foreign workers Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.
Officials of the Foreign and the Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministries said the process of recruitment of Bangladeshi workers has been slowed down due to some bureaucratic tangles over ensuring safety of workers and sending them under both government and private arrangements.
But the situation has improved, the officials said. The Thai labour ministry has expressed its willingness to recruit the Bangladeshi workers as  the country faces severe labour shortage in sectors that require hard work due to improvement of its economic condition.
The Bangladesh Ambassador said the government has taken time to sign the MoU to resolve safety issues of workers as they will be working at deep sea and other sectors that pose health hazards.
"Thailand has many challenges as we have in our labour market. The reasonable minimum wage, safety, security, treatment and insurance facilities have to be ensured equally as per the standard of Thai workers," the Ambassador said.
When asked about the minimum wage for a worker in Thailand, Mr Imtiaz said it will be fixed after negotiation which will start soon after the MoU signing.
The G-2-G arrangement has been created only after signing MoU with Malaysia in November, 2012. Though it was earlier said some 50,000 Bangladeshi workers would be sent to Malaysia every year, it, however, remained suspended after sending only 1,300 people.
The private sector has blamed the G2G arrangement for the damage of the Bangladesh labour market in Malaysia.
Expatriates Welfare Secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan said the government this time has been taking time to sign the MoU to ensure all the shortcomings in the G2G arrangement, particularly in the field of safety issues of the workers in the receiving countries.
"We have got the scope for creating a new market in Thailand. We want to uphold our image with reputation," he said adding that the government is sincere in this regard.
In overseas migration, problems are created over cost of migration, the Ambassador said. Efforts have been taken for a healthy competition better safeguards and benefits to the workers, he added.
About 8.6 million Bangladeshi workers are now employed in different foreign countries, mainly in the Middle East.