Reza Mahmud :
The Bangladeshi manpower working abroad earn less than what the workers of the neighbouring countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and The Philippines do due to lack of diplomatic initiative and skills.
“In Singapore, Pakistan and Nepal workers are getting nearly twice of the salaries of our workers though our qualities are almost identical,” said Saiful Alam, from Munshigonj, working in Singapore.
He said, despite similar educational qualifications and other skills, Bangladeshi workers lag behind , but no initiative is taken to remove difference. He said, “Bangladeshi community in Singapore frequently discuss the matter .
“Embassies of our neighbouring countries are always playing active role and remain alert for keeping their workers interests protected. But such activities are rare in case of Bangladeshi officials.” Saiful said.
Moreover, the untrained recruiting agencies are also responsible for disparity.
“Our workers used to send less remittance due to our weak bargaining capacity,” said Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, former Secretary General of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA).
He said, there are some specific reasons behind our weak bargaining capacity.
“Nepal used to send house guards, private security workers abroad, contrary to which we have less capability to communicate with those employers in English,” former BAIRA General Secretary said.
Besides, he said, most of our labour markets abroad hardly work long time for our manpower, he said.
“Many of our traditional markets found stopped for employing our manpower for five to more years. As a result we then used to rely on a few labour markets with our huge number of manpower, which make our bargaining power weak,” Noman said.
He stressed on diplomatic efforts to keep all labour markets abroad open always.
When contacted, Imran Ahmed, Minister of the Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment told The New Nation on Tuesday, “We have taken initiatives to fix wage structures for our manpower working abroad.”
On a bid to increase remittance and ensure adequate wage for our workers abroad, the government has taken multiple initiatives. The result may be found in time, he said.
According to Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment ministry data, the country earned the average annual remittance of 13 to 16 billion dollars from 2014 to 2019. However, despite sending less workers than Bangladesh, India has earned remittances almost four times more that of Bangladesh.
Nepal has earned nine billion by sending one-fourth of manpower of Bangladesh abroad.
And the Philippines earned double of the remittance after sending half of manpower than of Bangladesh during the same period.
As part of the ministry’s efforts, Expatriates’ Welfare Minister Imran Ahmad requested the authorities of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to fix wage structure for Bangladeshi workers working there.
The Expatriates’ Welfare Minister made the request at a meeting with Dr Abdul Rahman Abdul Mannan Al Awar, the UAE minister of human resources and emiratisation (MOHRE).
The bilateral meeting was held last week at Al Habtoor Palace in Dubai.
Dr Abdul Rahman Abdul Mannan Al Awar assured that they would consider the requests including opening up workers’ visas for Bangladesh to all provinces.
When contacted, Md. Shahidul Alam, Director General of Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) told The New Nation on Tuesday, “Ensuring adequate wages for our workers abroad, we have to go ahead with diplomatic ways.”
He also stressed on skilled and trained workers abroad.
