Good news awaits workers seeking overseas jobs as the government is expecting a positive outcome from the negotiations with some Middle Eastern countries to tap the labour markets therein, according to officials.
The government has already struck some progress with the authorities in the Middle Eastern countries, particularly Qatar which is expected to recruit a huge number of workers from Bangladesh ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2022, they said. Talking to UNB, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain said, “We expect to make a deal with Qatar to send a large number of workers for the World Cup 2022 preparation. Hopefully, Qatar will start receiving workers from our country either at the end of this year or early 2015.”
“The government is in touch with its Qatar counterpart in this regard. They’ll require about 8-10 lakh foreign workers from abroad to organise the World Cup,” he said.
Khandker Mosharraf expressed optimism that the demand for manpower will go up to a great extent in different countries if the global economy recovers fully from the ongoing crisis.
The minister also noted that initiatives are on to explore new overseas destination for Bangladeshi workers.
“We’re working to create new labour markets alongside sustaining the traditional ones. Some 160 labour attachés will be appointed and sent to different countries in order to increase manpower export,” he said
Director General of Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) Begum Shamsunnahar told UNB that besides exploring new labour markets, they are trying to resume sending workers to the labour-receiving countries which earlier imposed restrictions on hiring workers from Bangladesh.
In this connection, she said, Bangladeshi workers are now making their ways to the labour markets in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Belarus and Japan. “A process is underway to export manpower to Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Thailand and Mauritius.”
Shamsunnahar hoped that though migration flow to different countries declined in last two years, it will see an increase in the current year.
The government has already selected a total of 30,000 workers through online registration process who will be sent to Malaysia in phases, she said, adding that some 2100 selected workers have already flown to the country.
It’s worth mentioning that Malaysian government stopped hiring Bangladeshi workers in 2009 following allegations of anomalies in recruitment process.
However, in 2013, the governments of Bangladesh and Malaysia signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for resuming the manpower recruitment under government to government arrangement.
As per the MoU, about five lakh Bangladeshi workers are supposed to be recruited by Malaysia.
Sources at the ministry said, Kuwait, one of the Middle Eastern countries considered major destinations for Bangladeshi workers, have shown interest in recruiting manpower from Bangladesh.
On the other hand, officials of private recruiting agencies observed that the overseas labour markets for Bangladeshi workers could be expanded more if the private sector was allowed to involve in the process more actively.
Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agency (BAIRA) secretary general Ali Haider Chowdhury said both the government and private recruiting agencies must cooperate with each other in expanding the labour markets.
He said, Bangladesh has traditional labour markets in the Middle Eastern countries and Malaysia where manpower export has either remained halted or fallen, adding that everything depends on the government’s rule and regulations.
Ali Haider said, the private sector is ready to export manpower complying with the government rules and regulations.
When his attention was drawn about the private recruiters’ interest to have a stake in sending workers abroad, Khandker Mosharraf said the recruiting agencies have to send workers following the government’ s conditions.
Private recruiting agencies can send workers to all countries other than Malaysia complying with the government conditions, he added.
