Reza Mahmud :
A section of dishonest officials at the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) are allegedly involved in corruption over workers recruiting abroad.
Some deceitful recruiting agencies send unskilled Bangladeshi workers abroad showing them as skilled manpower. They also take extra money from the job seeking workers. Some BMET officials are helping such corrupt recruiting agencies.
It poised a huge threat for the Bangladeshi labour markets abroad. The extra costs for the migrating workers also put additional burden on them.
A number of workers whom this correspondent talked to pointed out that such burden sometimes dashed their dream of going abroad for jobs. Minister for Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment, Nurul Islam has given directions to investigate such allegation. Begum Shamsunnahar, the Secretary of the Ministry, will take necessary steps to ensure good governance in the sector, Islam said.
When contacted, Jabed Ahmed, the Additional Secretary (Admin) of the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment said, “The Minister has given a direction to investigate such allegations and take proper action. We are investigating the matter.”
According to the people close to the sector, those recruiting agencies bring visa from Middle Eastern and Far Eastern countries for skilled workers but they supplied unskilled labourers in the name of skilled workers. Some BMET officials are giving certificates and other training documents to the unskilled workers as skilled manpower in exchange for money. They have collected around Tk 15 thousand from each unskilled workers.
The errant recruiting agencies are sending ordinary workers under driving visa to Saudi Arabia. Similar incidents of this illegal practice are also found in the cases of Kuwait, Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries. At the same time unskilled workers have been sent to Malaysia in the visas of skilled manpower.
“Some BMET officials in a nexus with some recruiting agencies are making group visa as individuals. It has given them extra chance to collect money from the workers individually,” a worker willing to migrant said.
A BMET official said on condition of anonymity that in the case of group visa the BMET cannot do everything about manpower export. The other parts of the processing of manpower export should be cleared from the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment.
But in the case of individuals, the BMET is able to serve every necessary documents to the workers, this officials added, pointing out that in such conditions the officials are taking extra money.
Besides, the recruiting agencies also wanted to avoid the ministry due to the delaying process.
Official sources said if any recruiting agency obtains around 25 visas it is called individual work permit. The work permit above 25 is called group visa. Individual workers are charged Tk 1500 for work certificates from the BMET. Group visa seekers need to pay Tk 2500 for collecting certificates from the ministry. According to law, the recruiting country gives the costs of certificates and other documents. But it is not followed in Bangladesh. As a result, the workers are compelled to bear all of this cost.
Workers need to pay Tk 1,65,000 for migrating to Saudi Arabia. But they forced to pay around Tk 6,00000.
According to official data, 7,57,731 workers have been recruited abroad in 2016. The number was 5,55,881 in 2015 and 4,25,484 in 2014.
