Bangladesh exceeds labour exports target in FY22

Bangladesh has surpassed its manpower export target for the 2021-22 fiscal year as countries across the globe lifted pandemic restrictions and reopened businesses. 

Around 9.88 lakh workers secured overseas employment in the immediate past fiscal, which is a whopping 253% growth compared to the previous fiscal year, according to data provided by the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment.

The remittance inflow, however, declined 15% in FY22 compared to FY21, when expatriates had sent home the highest amount in the country's history amid the pandemic.

According to experts, quality labour migration is yet to be ensured as the majority of the outgoing workers are deemed unskilled or low-skilled. Skilled workers will be able to bring in more remittances.  

Sector insiders have linked the rebound of overseas employment to brighter Gulf economies buoyed by rising fuel oil prices, normalisation of the pandemic situation, and easing of restrictions.

Besides, increasing the quota for Bangladeshi migrants' in all Saudi firms to 40% from 25% has contributed to this record growth as the kingdom employed 66% of the total exported workers in the last fiscal, they said. 

"Our target was set at 8 lakh but we were able to exceed that limit and sent nearly 10 lakh people," Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmed told The Business Standard (TBS) on Monday.

"The demand for workers in foreign countries has surged as they opened up factories in the post-pandemic period," he said.

The minister hoped that more workers would be able to go abroad in the current financial year as Malaysia reopened the closed labour market.

"We see Malaysia as a bonus. After a long three-year hiatus, we planned to send workers there from June, but it was not possible for various reasons. However, the process will start very soon," he added.

The ministry hopes to send 1 million workers this year.

Meanwhile, the country started sending health workers like nurses to Kuwait last month with more than Tk1 lakh monthly salaries. 

Around 100 nurses have reached Kuwait as part of a deal to send 1,000 health staff in the preliminary stage.         

Foreign jobs that had come to a complete halt in 2020 owing to pandemic-led restrictions started turning around in August 2021. The upward trend has been continuing since then, taking the labour migration to a near pre-pandemic level. 

With Covid restrictions in effect, overseas employment declined to 2.80 lakh in FY21, according to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET). 

Before the pandemic, on average 6-7 lakh Bangladeshi workers used to be abroad, mostly to the Middle Eastern countries, each year.

Migration expert Asif Munier said the aspirant migrants, who were stranded in FY21 due to the pandemic, managed to reach various destinations as the restrictions were lifted in the last fiscal.     

Saudi Arabia is the top destination for Bangladeshi migrants, followed by Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore, Jordan and Qatar. 

Abul Bashar, former president of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira), said, "None was able to visit Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj and Umrah for the last two years. This time Saudi is accepting hajj pilgrims, which has increased the demand for new staff in hotels and restaurants."

"Mainly cleaners, domestic workers and hospitality workers are going to the kingdom with relatively low salaries," he said.

In addition, some were hired as security guards, drivers and construction workers in the UAE with a monthly salary of Tk35,000-Tk40,000, Bashar said. 

Besides, some skilled and semi-skilled workers made their entry into different countries like Oman as plumbers, electricians or technicians of refrigerators and air conditioners, the former Baira president added.   

Around 74% of the labourers who migrated in 2021 are unskilled ones, according to the Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit (RMMRU).

"On the one hand, we are sending mostly unskilled workers, and on the other hand, a large number of them are falling victims to fraud and returning home which is failed migration," said Dr Tasneem Siddiqui, founding chair of RMMRU, to TBS.

"Sending people through a syndicate of 25 Malaysian agencies could also lead to a failed migration," she added.

Regarding the declining remittance inflow, she said, "The amount of remittances in a particular time frame does not usually depend on the workers that went abroad in the corresponding period. The amount depends mainly on the stock migrants."

"The number of exported workers dropped drastically in FY21. So remittances declined slightly in the following year. However, the impact of the last fiscal's surge in labour export can be observed in the coming months," she added.

Around 1.3 crore Bangladeshis have been employed abroad between 1976 and 2021, according to government data. The highest 10 lakh Bangladeshis were employed in 2017. 

In fiscal 2021-22, expatriates sent $21.03 billion through official channels which was $24.77 billion in the previous fiscal year, according to data from the Bangladesh Bank.