Downhill journey to overseas job mkt

Arafat Ara | Published: August 31, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Overseas job market for the country's outbound workers has been passing through a worrying recession over the months, with the prospect of negative impact on the inflow of remittances and employment situation for a large number of jobless.
Experts and private recruiters have attributed such downturn in manpower export to what they said absence of necessary policy supports from the government.
On the other hand, officials said following world economic recession and restriction imposed by some Middle-Eastern (ME) countries, the number of overseas jobs declined significantly.
Sector-insiders painted a paradox for the country's overseas job situation, as they said the demand for foreign workers is high on the global market but the authorities failed to avail the scope.
If Bangladesh could tap the opportunities, they say, the present dull situation would be over.
Tasneem Siddiqui, the founder-chair of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), told the FE if the government could enter the Malaysian market properly, the present downtrend could be reversed.
"But it did not happen as the government-to-government arrangement failed to utilize the market," she said.
Besides, the migration expert pointed out, some vital job destinations like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait, remained closed for long.
"So the trend of migration remained unchanged."
The number of foreign jobs starting falling in August 2012 as the United Arab Emirates imposed restrictions on visa issuance following reported bad image of some Bangladeshis.
After that, the rate of migration has been on a downturn and, as per the data of last six months of the current calendar year, the manpower export will not be more than that of last year.
According to the data of manpower export with the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) some 475,278 Bangladeshis got foreign jobs in 2009 while 390,702 in 2010, 568,062 in 2011, 607,798 in 2012, and 409253 in 2013.
And during the six months of calendar year 2014, some 239,808 workers went abroad.
The highest movement for taking up jobs abroad was more than 0.8 million in 2008. Thereafter came the drop in 2009 due to global recession, to take an upturn again in 2011 and 2012.
Such fluctuations in overseas employments cast a negative impact on the country's remittance inflow.
Expatriate Bangladeshis remitted $14.22 billion in 2013-14 FY while they sent home $14.46 billion in the 2012-13 FY.
The RMMRU chair, Ms Siddiqui, said government should work for a repair of the image in the ME countries as it has been "destroyed badly".
And, for this reason, Bangladesh is not getting favour from some ME countries to resume manpower export.
The migration expert, however, said there had also been occurrences committed by other foreign workers in the ME or different countries. But it is not broadcast in media and blog widely.
On the other hand, the embassies are active to show good image of their workers in foreign media and blog.
But Bangladesh has not proper work in this area. When any Bangladeshi commits offences, it gets wide coverage in media of respective countries.
She said Bangladesh should employ press attaché at every embassy abroad. "And it also should take initiative to propagate success stories of our migrant workers."
Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) leader Ali Haider Chowdhury said the government should take a proper policy to enhance quantity and quality of labour migration from Bangladesh.
He also underlined the need for integrated initiatives among the ministries concerned for developing the sector.
Secretary of the ministry of expatriates' welfare and overseas employment Khandaker Shawkat Hossain listed remedial measures. He said various steps were being taken to increase the number of overseas jobs.
The government has also increased labour wings from 16 to 28 in the worker-receiving countries.
Mr Hossain said to enhance the labour migration they had already held a meeting with the Bangladeshi ambassadors in various potential job markets.
About 8.9 million Bangladeshis are now working in 169 countries. Of them, only some 20 countries have absorbed the bulk of the overseas Bangladeshi workers.