Reza Mahmud :
Huge demand of Bangladeshi workers has been created in traditional and new labour markets in different foreign countries during the pandemic, sources said.
Officials from the Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry and manpower exporters revealed the information to The New Nation on Saturday.
Sources said, huge construction works have remained incomplete and untouched in traditional labour markets especially in the Middle Eastern countries due to the prevailing worldwide coronavirus pandemic.
Besides, factory and agriculture sectors in Malaysia and some other countries also are suffering from labour shortages which have created enormous hope for Bangladeshi skilled and non-skilled workers. Besides, in Europe, especially in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and in some African countries have been emerged as the new horizon for Bangladeshi migrant job seekers.
The stakeholders said all of these opportunities can be availed soon after resuming the international flights.
“In East Europe, a lone country Romania has potential to recruit more than 2,00,000 Bangladeshi workers within a short time. The country is suffering from acute labour shortages as a number of its workforce has migrated to the West Europe in past years,” Farhad Mahmud Tipu, Proprietor of Apporach People Recruitment, an agency for exporting manpower abroad, told The New Nation yesterday. He said that his agency has sent about 150 persons to the country on February and March.
They will have to send several hundreds of workers more but that have been suspended due to the on going pandemic, he added. Farhad Mahmud said their efforts are going on and work orders for sending several hundred workers to Romania will be received soon, if the situation of the pandemic is eased.
The manpower exporter said Still Mills, Bakery factories, health sectors and other manufacturing industries have huge demands for skilled workers from Bangladesh.
Sources from Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) said demands have been created in Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia, Lithuania and Macedonia for our workers.
Meanwhile, several hundred workers went to those countries in past years.
Farhad Mahmud is optimistic that many other will follow Romania.
Doors of many other European countries will be opened for recruiting of our manpower as there are already of shortages of workforce.
When contacted, Md. Shahidul Alam, Director General of Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) told The New Nation on Saturday, “We have found enormous potentials of exporting our manpower both in traditional and newly invented labour markets abroad. Presently, Europe, Africa and Central Asia are potential new labour markets for us.”
He said, “We have asked our embassies to work more for searching job markets for our manpower. We have got positive responses which has made us optimistic.”
When contacted, Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, former Secretary General of BAIRA, told The New Nation on Saturday, “Several thousand visas for recruiting our manpower in Saudia Arabia has still hanging due to the pandemic situation. The Saudi Embassy in Dhaka do not work on those due to the worsen contamination situation. Besides, officials from Dubai City Corporation of United Arab Emirates are already sent demands for about 3000 drivers and other workers to us.”
He said the other countries also lots of demands for our manpower but we have to develop our own countries contamination situation.
The former Secretary General said, the recruiters are staying for behind due to the worse contamination in our country.
“If we can lower the contamination rate by creating social awareness, recruiting of our manpower abroad will increase with jumping,” he said.
