The World Bank (WB) has projected lower remittance growth for Bangladesh in 2021 compared to India and Pakistan due to slower out migration of workers who have returned home at the height of the global coronavirus pandemic. The WB has made the projection in its global migration and development brief published Thursday saying overall remittance in the South Asian countries will grow by 8 per cent this year while it may be much below at 6 per cent to the tune of $23 billion for Bangladesh. The amount is significantly higher than in 2020 but it may face downside risk next year. The report has rightly blamed the slow pace of out migration of workers from Bangladesh. On the other hand, the slow pace of issuance of visas by Gulf countries is causing lower migration to lower remittance.
Migrant workers sent home $18.88 billion in the first 10 months of 2021, up 7 per cent from $17.61 billion during the same period last year. In India, remittances grew higher to a total of $87 billion while Pakistan will have a record remittance of $33 billion, which will be 26 per cent higher. But despite the slowdown trend, Bangladesh has retained its position as the seventh highest recipient of remittance while India tops the position and Pakistan stands sixth. We are appalled by the slowdown in remittance growth although it rose above pre-Covid-19 and 2020 levels due to various tax cuts and other incentives. But such a down trend is nonetheless a matter of big concern as most of our development work and rural economy is based on expatriate remittance. A huge 19 per cent fall in deployment of Bangladeshi workers in the Gulf countries reported this year is quite shocking.
Notably, most of our workers are less skilled and have less demand. Moreover Saudi Arabia issued 12 per cent fewer visas while Oman reported 15 percent fall in Bangladeshi workers. Workers’ returns from Libya doubled since 2020. Malaysia repatriated 90,000 undocumented migrant worker while 40,000 workers who came on vacation remained stranded. We must say the government must implement a massive training programe for workers intending to go abroad. More than half the 5 million migrants in the Gulf countries are less-skilled while India and Pakistan are taking the advantage with skilled workers. A Bangladeshi worker’s monthly remittance is reportedly $203 compared to $276 for a Pakistani, $396 for an Indian. We would therefore say since we are a manpower exporting country, we must give skills training to all our workers before sending them abroad to get better pay.
