Manpower exports hit records as demand rises

With economic recovery in the destination countries increasing labour demand, Bangladesh has made a new record in annual manpower exports this year, with 10,24,458 people going abroad between January and November.

This is the highest number since 1976, the year when the authorities started keeping official records. 10,08,525 people went abroad in 2017, which was the previous record.

The majority of the workers went to three Middle Eastern countries – Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – this year.

The country sent 76,585 workers abroad in November, Director (employment) of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) Mohammad Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan told The Business Post.

BMET data shows 9,47,873 Bangladeshi workers went abroad this year between January and October. Besides, 6,17,249 people went to different countries for work in 2021.

Moreover, 8.75 lakh people went abroad in 2008, 8.33 lakh in 2007, 7.58 lakh in 2016, and 7.34 lakh in 2018. These years were the best-performing ones in terms of the number of workers sent abroad.

BMET Director General Md Shahidul Alam said aspiring migrants are getting loans, availing the government’s migration services has become easy, and the demand for Bangladeshi workers has also increased in different countries.

All these reasons have contributed to this year’s record, he said.

“Apart from general workers, we also want to send skilled ones, such as doctors and nurses, abroad, which will increase remittances. This will help us rank higher among the remittance receiving countries in the future. We are currently the seventh largest remittance receiving country in the world,” he added. Between January and October 31 this year, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, and Singapore recruited 8,31,458 Bangladeshi workers, which was 87.71 per cent of the total manpower exports, BMET data shows.

Of them, 5,43,774 workers went to Saudi Arabia, 1,44,881 to Oman, 89,108 to the UAE, and 53,695 to Singapore.

Among the Middle Eastern countries, Oman and the UAE increased recruitments from Bangladesh almost by three times compared to last year. In 2021, Oman recruited 55,009 workers from Bangladesh while the UAE hired 29,202.

Saudi Arabia recruited more Bangladeshis in 2022 than the previous year, remaining the highest receiving country.

Though Saudi Arabia has generally been the prime destination for Bangladeshi workers, the dependency reduced a bit this year. 57.37 per cent of Bangladeshi workers went to the oil-rich country this year, down from 74.08 per cent in 2021. Manpower exports to Qatar hit 19,755 from January to October 2022, up from 11,158 last year. However, the country recruited 50,292 in 2019, which dropped to 3,608 the following year.

Though manpower exports reached a new peak this year, the market remains limited to seven to eight countries, including Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia, and Jordan. Malaysia has emerged as a promising destination after it recently dissolved the 25-agency syndicate.

Malaysia hired only 41 Bangladeshis in July and 573 in August this year. But after dissolving the syndicate in September, the number increased remarkably.

In September, 4,659 workers went to Malaysia, which rose to 9,649 in October. Only 28 people managed to go to the Southeast Asian country last year.

Among the Western countries, Italy hired 5,301 Bangladeshi workers this year, which was only 653 in 2021. South Korea recruited 4,121 workers in 2022, up from only 108 last year.

“The new overseas employment record is a positive sign for the country at a time when the economic situation remains difficult and both forex reserves as well as the banking sector are in a volatile situation,” Dr Tasneem Siddiqui, founding chair of the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit, told The Business Post.

“However, the increase in manpower exports should not be attributed to the steps we took on our side, including policies. It happened as the economies in the destination countries are recovering from the Covid-19 crisis. Besides, our recruiting agencies have played a key role in this boost,” she explained.

She said the government should take measures to check fraudulence in migration, adding many migrants are returning home after three to six months as they failed to manage jobs.

“The government needs to take action against fraudulence, continue providing incentives against remittance, and look after the workers once they are abroad.” Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, secretary general of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies, told The Business Post they expect the manpower export figure will cross 11 lakh as there is still one more month to go.

“But what is more important than the number is workers’ skills. Bangladeshi workers earn less than their counterparts from other countries, and the main reason is the lack of skills. To enhance skills and increase remittance inflow, all our training facilities need to be restructured,” he said.

Speaking about expanding the list of destination countries, he said new markets are being created slowly and it needs time to achieve trust, adding migration to European countries will increase more in the future.

“Gambia and Portugal have shown interest, but they want workers who can speak good English. Besides, some countries do not have missions in Bangladesh. In these situations, we need to process visas in a third country. That is why infrastructure development in this regard is essential,” he added.

Bangladesh received $19.58 billion in remittances from January to November 30 this year, down from $22.071 billion in 2021. Besides, the amount was $21.75 billion in 2020, $18.355 billion in 2019, and $15.544 billion in 2018.

“The annual remittance growth had been 10-20 per cent between 2001 and 2015, which has now slowed down. This might be due to fraudulence in migration,” Tasneem said.

But Noman has a different opinion. He said it is not true that remittance is not increasing.

“The dollar price difference between the kerb market and banks is almost Tk 10. That is why workers are sending money through different unofficial channels instead of remitting via banks. That is why remittance figures seem low.”

He called for a 5 per cent incentive against remittance instead of the existing 2.5 per cent as migrants are making lots of personal sacrifices for the wellbeing of the country.

Since 1976, a total of around 1.46 crore people went abroad and remitted $271.9 billion.