Reza Mahmud :
The Bangladeshi manpower exports to the traditional markets in the Middle-East and far-eastern countries are being shrunken day by day.
Although the stake holders are venturing for new markets abroad, they are yet to get any positive result. However, they are hopeful of getting new destinations soon.
“We are trying our best to expand our labour market abroad. As the traditional labour markets in the Middle-East and far-eastern countries are being shrunken, we are working to introduce with new countries to export our manpower. We are hopeful to get new destinations soon,” said Bangladesh International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) President Benjir Ahmed.
The government and the manpower exporting agencies are trying to create new destinations for Bangladeshi workers in the Europe, Africa and other countries. They are also trying to reopen the Middle-Eastern and other old markets, he said.
“The possible new labour markets like Japan and Europe want skilled workers. Right now we have very few skilled workers to export. We are trying our best to make our manpower skilled,” Nurul Islam, Minister for Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment, told journalist recently.
Sources said, the labour markets in the Middle-Eastern countries are in unstable conditions for long. Saudi Arabia, the largest Bangladeshi immigrant workers market was closed about seven years. The government of Saudi Arabia has recently opened the door for Bangladeshi workers. But the recruiting agencies said the employers of that country have added condition to send 25 percent female workers along with male there.
“If we fail to send 25 female workers then we must not get visa for 75 male workers. But it is not easy to get sufficient number of female workers in our conservative society,” Shariful Islam, an executive of Dynamic Trade Syndicate, a recruiting agency, told The New Nation.
Besides, the Saudi government has now banned recruitment of foreign workers in the country’s shopping malls to secure their own manpower’s job market. On the other hand, the country threatened to send back several thousand Bangladeshi workers working there illegally if they fail to get legal work permit within few days.
The other countries like Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain have stopped recruitment of Bangladeshi manpower for last seven years.
The United Arab Emirates, the second largest labour market for our workers, has opened their door only for female workers. The UAE is recruiting very few male workers from our country.
According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), a total 1,123 Bangladeshi workers have been sent to the UAE. Among them, 942 were female and only 181 male manpower.
Among the far-eastern countries, only Malaysia’s market has been open after seven years for us. But the companies of that country are collecting Bangladeshi workforce slowly and in very few numbers. The labour markets in Singapore and Brunei Darussalam are also closed for long,
According to BMET, 875,055 workers were sent abroad in 2008. After that year the manpower export market collapsed. 475,274 Bangladeshis got job in foreign countries in 2009. 390,702 in 2010, 568,062 in 2011, 607,798 in 2012, 409,253 in 2013, 382,298 in 2014, 538,667 in 2015, 757,731 in 2016 and 272, 973 in January- March in this year.
