Noman Mosharef :
The government of Bangladesh has planned to cancel the registration of inactive 400 manpower recruiting agencies.
More than 1,600 manpower recruiting agencies are registered for operating activities of sending expatriate in abroad whereas 700 are regular in activities. For that, the govt. wants bring all recruiting agencies under Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training’s (BMET) database for ensuring their transparency and making accountable.
The manpower recruiting agencies have been contributing to send hundred of thousand immigrants in abroad in every year. According to law there are obligations for agencies that they have to send a certain amount of expatriates in abroad. But according to BMET out of 1,600 manpower recruiting agencies, about 400 are existing merely in name. So, the government wants to take action against them.
A few agencies bad reputation have impacted well prestigious others and they faced criticism. Over the issue, the authority issued a notice in 2020 for categorizing the agencies but they did not respond.
Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) former Secretary General Shamim Ahamed Chowdhury Noman said this process in not a good one. If the authority follows the system, the poor agencies will become poorer.
Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment said they want to recognize the agencies sub-agent. The ministry has asked the agencies to submit sub-agents name but they denied it.
In this context, Haider Ali Chowdhury, the former secretary general of BAIRA said, “We will not be able to take the responsibility of the agents, it will increase the pressure.” In this situation, the government is bringing the agencies in the database system.
Shahidul Alam Chowdhury, Director General (DG) of the BMET said, “Before, we did not have the opportunity to get information on the servers of the agencies.”
Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmed said, “I want to remove inactive agencies from the list.”
In addition, 180 agencies have been suspended due to their involvement in criminal activities and seven agencies licenses have been revoked.
