Bangladesh’s manpower export shot up by 270 percent in the first seven months of the current year, a total of 691,017 workers went abroad during the January-July period as against 256,187 in the same period last year, official sources said.
However, the manpower export during July dropped 32.31 per cent compared to June. Bangladesh exported a total of 75,499 workers in July as against 111,539 workers to different countries in June, sources at the Bureau, Manpower, Employment and Trading (BMET) said.
Saudi Arabia was the top destination of Bangladeshi workers with 425,563 workers (over 61.59 per cent of the market share) followed by Oman with 97,750 workers (14.15 per cent), UAE with 70,203 workers (10.16per cent), Singapore with 34,421 (4.98 per cent), Jordan with 9,524 workers (1.38 per cent), Qatar with 12,344 (1.79 per cent), Kuwait with 8607 workers (1.25%), Italy with 906 workers (0.13%), Japan 262, 0.04 per cent ) and UK with 214 workers (0.03%), according to BMET data.
Bangladesh exported a total of 1,008,525 workers in 2017, the highest in one year, during the last 50 years.
Meanwhile, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister of Malaysia Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin on Tuesday said in Kuala Lumpur that India and Pakistan have offered to send their citizens to work in Malaysian plantations, according to Malaysian online newspaper, The Star Online.
“We also ask industry players to be open to accept workers from India and Pakistan who are ready (to work in Malaysia),” the minister said during a question and answer session in the Dewan Rakyat.
She said sourcing workers from India and Pakistan will be a short- term measure given the problems that Malaysia is facing with Indonesia and Bangladesh in terms of sourcing foreign labour.
“We feel that to resolve the problem immediately, we have to bring in these workers to manage the fruits (fresh fruit bunch),” she added.
The Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) reportedly said that it expects about 52,000 migrant workers to arrive by the end of the year.
A leader of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) on Wednesday while talking to this correspondent said that Bangladesh government should engage in constant talks with different stakeholders in the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia.
After the visit of Malaysian Human Resources Minister M Saravanan to Bangladesh recently, Bangladesh can export 1.00-1.20 million workers, and surpass the previous highest record in exporting manpower to overseas countries, based on the current statistics, said SM Zillur Rahman, chairman of Rahman Group, and former director of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI).
As the manpower export gets momentum in 2022, the government should also devise mid and long-term strategies to send more skilled workers abroad since some closed labour markets are expected to reopen later this year, he added.
