The lack of alternative overseas markets has caused a debacle in the sector as the traditional destinations are closing their doors for the Bangladeshi job seekers.
Job sourcing abroad has reduced drastically in the current calendar year (2013) due to failure in fruitful diplomatic negotiations with the recruiting countries, insiders claimed.
Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman are major destinations for Bangladeshi job seekers but now the countries do not issue any visa to the Bangladeshis.
The consequence is --- the country's manpower export has dropped by 37 per cent in the last 10 months of 2013, compared to the corresponding period of 2012, the data of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) showed.
Bangladesh sent 342,219 workers abroad in last 10 months (January-October of 2013) while the figure was 544,107 in the corresponding period of the last year.
Industry insiders said Oman, one of the largest labourer recruiters, has recently halted recruitment of Bangladeshi workers in her construction and cleaning jobs for next six months.
Earlier in August 2012, the authorities in the UAE had stopped issuing all kinds of entry permits for Bangladeshi passport holders because of security concerns over identification and fake documents.
Bangladesh sent some 11,013 people to the UAE until October last against 215,000 in 2012.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has imposed a ban on recruitment of Bangladeshi workers since 2008.
"We don't have any good news for job seekers to the UAE and other countries", Director General (DG) of BMET Begum Shamsun Nahar told the FE.
She said they are trying to meet with the governments of UAE and other countries for negotiation but have not got any fruitful result until now.
The BMET chief said the government is very serious about reopening the UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabian markets to maintain a firm growth in remittances as well as employment generation.
Insiders said Bangladesh's manpower export declined since September 2012, when the UAE government imposed restrictions on entry visas to Bangladeshi workers.
Secretary General of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) Ali Haider Chowdhury told the FE: "The government said they are doing many things to reopen the closed manpower markets but the move is not visible."
He said, "We do not know what the government is actually doing for development of the manpower sector".
Mr Chowdhury said Malaysia could be a prime destination for Bangladeshi job seekers but the government has completely failed to avail the opportunity.
Chairperson of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) Dr Tasnim Siddique told the FE that the country's overseas job seekers are passing a tough time due to closure of almost all the markets.
She said Bangladesh's overseas manpower market is dependent on some selective countries like UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman. So when those countries stop recruitment, it hurts the country's whole manpower sector.
She suggested searching alternative markets to keep the sector stable.
"South Africa, Brazil and East European countries have potential to become lucrative destinations for Bangladeshi job seekers," she added.
Echoing Dr Tasnim Siddique, a BMET official said the government is exploring new markets for manpower export following the recent 'ban' on Bangladeshi workers by UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabian governments.
He said the probable new manpower export destinations are Romania, Poland, Nigeria, Angola, and Republic of the Russian Federation.
According to BMET data, more than 8.0 million Bangladeshis are working in 143 countries, most of them in the Middle East. Besides, a considerable number of Bangladeshis are working in North Africa, Australia, Europe, Canada, the USA and the UK.
A total of 607,798 people migrated abroad in 2012 and the country received US$ 14.17 billion in remittances from expatriate Bangladeshis, the data showed.
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