Bangladesh sees soaring trend in skilled worker migration to UK

In an exceptional trend, Bangladesh has witnessed a substantial surge in sending skilled workers to the United Kingdom, particularly in roles of caregivers, domestic staff and hospitality personnel.

As of 10 August 2023, altogether 4,107 skilled workers from Bangladesh have been employed across diverse sectors in the UK, marking an all-time high for a single year, according to data from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET).

Earlier in 2005, the UK hired the highest number of 2,793 workers from Bangladesh.

Industry observers point to a combination of factors to explain this surge: a decrease in the influx of migrant workers from Europe post-Brexit, the lingering impacts of the pandemic leading to workforce burnout, and the UK government's stringent stance against hiring undocumented labour.

They, however, noted that unauthorised agencies in both source and destination countries are capitalising on this trend, charging exorbitant recruitment fees from workers as the authorities did not allow agencies in the process.

When inquired, Md Abu Bakar Siddique, managing director of the recruiting agency World Vision Overseas, said, "While we aren't directly dispatching workers to the UK, several individuals who have personally managed jobs are obtaining clearance cards from the BMET via our agency. Over the past one year, around 400-500 individuals have been able to secure BMET cards for UK opportunities through us."

Md Abdul Malek, proprietor of Fama Air Service, added, "Our firm has facilitated the issuance of emigration cards from the BMET for approximately 250-300 workers, mostly hailing from the Sylhet region."

Over the past year and a half, an estimated 300 care workers, 280 restaurant waiters, 239 domestic workers, 98 chefs, 82 salespersons, and 48 caretakers have been recruited from Bangladesh.

The data indicates that the largest chunk of recruitment, 2,826 individuals, fell under the worker/labourer category, while 922 were classified as skilled workers.

However, the BMET authorities do not have clear information about the actual job category of these workers.

Remarkably, about 49% of Bangladeshi workers who found employment in the UK in the first six months this year were female, according to BMET estimates.

Md Mahabubur Rahman, a Bangladeshi-origin solicitor and immigration expert in the Supreme Court of England and Wales, explained, "Those categorised as 'Skilled Workers' predominantly secure roles in care-giving and the restaurant sector. Some also enter fields like IT and web development. The requirement of only four IELTS points has made entry into these positions quite accessible."

Highlighting a significant need, he said, "With approximately 1 lakh openings for care-giver positions, Bangladesh falls short in providing sufficient formal education or training in this domain. Addressing this aspect deserves greater attention from the government."

Notably, the six most sought-after professions in the UK in 2023 encompass programmers and software developers, cybersecurity specialists, health services and residential care, architects, graphic designers, and physical scientists, as reported by various media sources.

The social care workforce has been boosted by 58,000 overseas staff over the past year, as revealed in UK government immigration figures published in May this year.

The rise in overseas staff joining the workforce came on the back of the government's decision to add "care workers" and "home carers" to its shortage occupation list for skilled workers in February 2022, enabling providers to directly recruit from abroad to these roles for the first time.

Over half of health and care visas were granted to staff from India (29,726), Nigeria (17,596) or Zimbabwe (17,421), with all three nations seeing rapid growth in the number of their citizens moving to the UK to work in health and social care.

Health service roles (including nursing) average around £30,000, while jobs in care start at £21,000.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a high-skilled worker from Faridpur who relocated to the UK in November last, stated, "I am employed at a logistics service provider company. The demand in the UK predominantly centres around skilled workers. While many have arrived through various avenues, they face challenges due to the skills shortage."

Concerns over fake demand, high migration costs

Meanwhile, there are allegations that a number of unregistered agencies are resorting to fraud by taking advantage of the high demand for workers in the UK. Through such activities they are taking more than 20 lakh taka per worker.

Naseem Talukdar, director of Regency Recruit, a UK firm permitted to hire agricultural workers from Bangladesh, told TBS, "There is a tendency to hire workers by issuing more demand than workers who are not needed. Later, many of these workers seek asylum on false grounds."

"A circle is doing this mainly for the greed of money, which can hamper legitimate recruitment. If fraudulence continues to increase, the recruitment of farm workers may stop in the future," he added.

He mentioned that the UK will hire 45,000 seasonal farm workers next year from across the world, including Bangladesh.

Amidst corruption concerns, the UK has prohibited the direct hiring of workers from certain countries, including Bangladesh, through local agencies, noted solicitor Md Mahabubur Rahaman, adding, "in this situation, unregistered agents are attempting to recruit workers illegally for around Tk18-20 lakh."

BMET DG Shahidul Alam noted, "Our aim is to promote employment opportunities in developed countries like the UK. While imposing restrictions for wrongdoing is necessary, it's crucial to safeguard job prospects for workers."