Staff Reporter :
The total remittance sent in by Bangladeshi migrant workers declined by 11 per cent in 2016 although Bangladesh witnessed a 35 per cent increase in manpower export during the period, says a report.
The number of Bangladeshi migrants reached 7.5 lakhs this year from 5.55 lakhs in 2015, a report prepared by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) said.
Migrant workers sent $12.65 billion remittance to home this year from $15.31 billion in 2015.
RMMRU’s founding Chairman Prof Tasneem Siddiqui disclosed the findings of the report titled “Pattern and Trends of Labour Migration 2016: Achievement and Challenge” at Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka on Wednesday.
This is the highest figure of overseas employment since 2008 when it peaked at over 8.75 lakh, according to statistics of Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET).
“The decline in oil prices in the global market seriously affected the Middle Eastern markets where more than 80 percent of the Bangladeshi migrants are working. This is one of the major reasons behind the decline of remittance this year,” Prof Tasneem said. Referring to a recent report of World Bank on remittance-earning countries, she said Bangladesh was in seventh place but the position might slip to 10th by the end of this year.
According to the report, in 2016, the highest amount of remittance came in from Saudi Arabia followed by the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Malaysia.
Oman absorbed the highest number of Bangladeshi workers with 1.82 lakh followed by Saudi Arabia with 1.26 lakh, Qatar with 1.16 lakh, Bahrain with around 69,000, and Singapore with around 53,000.
Prof Tasneem cited the UAE and Malaysian markets as concerns as these are currently not hiring Bangladeshi workers.
