The ongoing unrest in the Middle East and African countries is likely to affect Bangladesh’s manpower export, the stakeholders said.
Expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan said last week that any ‘turmoil’ in the receiving countries, whether on political or economic issue, might affect Bangladesh’s manpower export.
He said, ‘We called up all labour attachés to train them in Dhaka but will
send back the Libyan
labour attaché on Tuesday as there is political turmoil there.’
Violent street protests have been raging on against the governments and rulers in Iran, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, Iraq, and Jordan for the last few days in the wake of ouster of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Iraqi people recently staged demonstrations in demand of jobs. Only two Bangladeshi workers went to Iraq in January 2011 against around 2,288 workers in 2010, according to the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry.
Libya hired 12,132 workers from Bangladesh in 2010 but is yet to hire a single worker this year.
The governments in the receiving countries will have to address their public problems, including unemployment, before going for development work and that must affect the hiring of foreign workers this time, Centre for Policy Dialogue senior research fellow Khandaker Golam Moazzem told New Age last week.
He, however, suggested that the stakeholders should reduce the migration cost as many migrants switch jobs and overstay in the receiving countries to recover the money they had spent due to high migration cost and low wages.
Syeda Rozana Rashid, an international relations teacher at Dhaka University who also conducts research in labour migration, emphasised timely diplomatic efforts to promote the country’s economic interests by approaching the leaders of the existing and potential receiving countries to address the issue.
‘But what may become a cause for concern for us is the employment situation. Any slump in manpower export today will further worsen the unemployment situation in the country,’ she said.
According to the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry data, as of January, 25,81,171 Bangladeshi nationals are working in Saudi Arabia, 18,06,601 in United Arab Emirates, 47,962 in Kuwait, 4,07,538 in Oman, 2,14,959 in Bahrain, 49,402 in Lebanon, 27,542 in Jordan, 95,194 in Libya, 7,803 in Sudan, 10,638 in Egypt, and 2,702 in Iraq.
Bangladesh received about $11,004 million in remittances in 2010 against $10,717 million received in 2009 and $8,979 million in 2008, according to the Bangladesh Bank.
