Although the rate of labour export abroad decreased at the beginning of the Covid pandemic in Bangladesh, the amount of remittances sent by expatriates was higher. One of the reasons for that is, during the Covid period, remittances through illegal ‘Hundi’ dropped and more money came through the legal channel. The 2 per cent incentive given by the government to remittances sent by expat workers has also encouraged them to send money to the country through the legal channel.
But recent media reports that foreign labour market has shrunk are worrying in two ways. Sending workers abroad has been declining for four years due to the recession in the old labour market and the inability to create new labour markets. As a result, expatriate income has also started declining.
According to BMET, a record number of more than one million workers went abroad in 2017. In 2018, it decreased to 7.34 lakh to 7 lakh in 2019. Although the labour market collapsed in 2020 thanks to the pandemic, we saw no attempt to recover it. Sending workers to Malaysia has been stopped since September 2018. After that, the representatives of the two countries met in stages but could not come to a decision on reopening the market. The UAE labour market has been closed since September 2012. Covid has affected labor markets in Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain and Lebanon too.
According to the Bangladesh Bank, the expatriate income started increasing at the beginning of the pandemic. However, it has been declining for three months. In August last year, the country received remittances worth $196 crore. In August this year, the expatriates sent $181 crore. Earlier, expatriates sent $187 crore in July and $194 crore in June. But the amounts in those two months were also less than that in the previous year.
Effective and sustainable steps must be taken to deal with the collapse in the foreign labour market. We need to emphasise providing appropriate training to our workers as per the demand of the importing countries, finding new markets and sectors for the workforce and strengthening the surveillance of embassies so that our workers do not get harassed unnecessarily after going abroad. Bangladesh, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other countries have a high demand for Bangladesh’s labour force. All the organisations and institutions associated with the labour market abroad have to work in a coordinated manner, eliminating the culture of blaming each other and avoidance of liability. If necessary, a task force can also be formed. Above all, all those involved in human trafficking in the name of exporting manpower abroad should be brought under the law. They are not only destroying people who want jobs abroad but also tarnishing the image of the country.
