The overseas employment of female workers has significantly increased although Bangladesh witnessed a negative growth of remittance inflow and drastic fall of labour migration in 2013, according to Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training. Bangladeshi female workers, mostly housemaids and garment workers, were being employed in Jordan, Lebanon, UAE, Oman and Qatar, BMET officials said.
Demand of the female workers has increased in Middle East countries as Indonesia and Philippines, the suppliers of domestic helps, have shrunken their supplies there raising salaries of their workers, they said.
According to BMET data, about 56,000 female workers left Bangladesh with overseas jobs from January to December in 2013. Some 37,304 female workers went abroad in 2012 while 30,579 in 2011, 27,706 in 2010 and 22,214 in 2009.
The BMET data recorded that about four lakh workers including male and female got overseas jobs from January to December in 2013 against over six lakh workers in 2012.
A Bangladeshi garment worker gets about US $ 200 monthly wage while housemaid get US$ 120-150 in Middle East countries, a senior official told New Age.
On the contrary, a housemaid from Philippines was getting about US$ 300 per month wage in those countries, the BMET official said.
Presenting a labour migration report recently, founding chair of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit Tasneem Siddiqui said that migration of female workers was gradually increasing.
Female migration from Bangladesh has increased to 12.64 per cent in 2013 from 6.14 per cent in 2012 of the country’s total manpower exports, she said.
When asked, Bangladesh Ovibashi Mohila Sramik Association director Sumaiya Islam told New Age that the government should ensure that the employers of female migrant workers were following standard contact protecting their rights.
‘It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that monthly wages of the workers are given through bank instead of hand to hand or through recruiting agents,’ she said.
Sumaiya alleged that government officials often behave rough with the migrant workers although they were sending valuable remittances to the country.
-With New Age input
