Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has sought Foreign Ministry’s help to safeguard the migrant workers from ‘hundi’ while sending remittances to their families in Bangladesh.
Last week, the Central Bank sent a letter to the Ministry seeking its help in this regard amid falling inward remittances in the country.
The remittance inflow declined by 10.87 per cent last year, although the country’s manpower export witnessed a 36.31 per cent growth by this time. According to the Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, some 757,731 Bangladeshi fortune seekers went abroad for jobs the last calendar year while the figure was 555,881 the previous year.
The country received $13.61 billion remittance in 2016 while the amount was $15.27 billion in 2015.
The Ministry and the BB attributed to the fall in remittances mainly for illegal hundi operation by some unscrupulous people in labour receiving countries.
The BB letter stated that the illegal money transfer through hundi thrives in labour receiving countries despite the Central Bank’s efforts to control it. Money transfer through illegal channels has led to a significant drop in remittance flow causing concern to us. So, the Central Bank is approaching the Ministry for its help to stop the illegal activities after engaging bilateral efforts with the respective countries.
“We came to know that a racket gang showing themselves as Mobile Banking agent (like bkash) is receiving remittance from Bangladeshi expatriates and letter sending it to their families in Bangladesh through hundi operation,” Subhankar Shaha, a spokesperson and Executive Director of BB told The New Nation on Sunday.
He added: “These gangs are mostly operating in Gulf countries as concentration of Bangladeshi workers is high there.”
“Such an illegal activity has hindered the free flow of remittances in legal channels and forcing us to seek the help from the Foreign Ministry,” he added.
The Central Bank has requested the Ministry to take steps to fill the black holes through engaging Bangladeshi Missions and the authorities of the respective countries.
It also requested to put pressure on the foreign governments for launching crackdown on the illegal hundi operators there.
