Manpower Export
Govt holds meeting with BAIRA
The expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry has held a meeting with the leaders of the BAIRA and discussed ways how to ensure smooth and safe manpower export against the backdrop of a downward trend in the country’s manpower export, officials and recruiters said. They said the ministry on Sunday held the meeting with the leaders of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies at the Probashi Kalyan Bhaban in the capital for the first time in six months.
They said a ‘misunderstanding’ between the government and the private recruitment agencies intensified in the last two or three years as many Bangladeshi workers reportedly faced problems in different countries including Malaysia.
Under the circumstances, the government last year introduced ‘government to government mechanism’ with Malaysia, leaving the private recruiters out of the recruitment process.
The meeting, chaired by expatriate’s welfare ministry secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan, focused on preserving the country’s traditional markets, expanding or searching new labour markets and keeping the migration cost at the rational level, officials and recruiters said.
BAIRA executive committee members led by its president Shahjalal Majumder took part in the discussion.
A senior BAIRA leader who attended the meeting told New Age that the government’s move (holding a meeting with the private manpower recruiters) would bring positive impact on the manpower sector and help remove the existing ‘misunderstanding’ between the two sides.
According to the data of Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, a total of 6,07,798 Bangladeshi workers got overseas employment in 2012. But, 3,71,647 workers from Bangladesh got overseas jobs in 11 months of the current year.
Labour and expatriates’ welfare minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain on Tuesday admitted that the country’s manpower export dropped significantly this year, citing the global financial recession as the main cause.
When asked, BAIRA secretary general Ali Haider Chowdhury told New Age that the BAIRA leaders held a meeting with the officials of the expatriates’ welfare ministry after six months.
He said that the BAIRA leaders proposed that the government should form a committee consisting of members from the ministry
and the EC committee of the BAIRA to set country-wise migration cost.
An estimation of a ‘rational migration cost’ would help the government to control the manpower sector easily and ensure smooth migration of the workers, he said.
He, however, held the government responsible for the decline in the manpower export in the current year.
Zafar Ahmed Khan said that they held an ‘open discussion’ with the BAIRA leaders to take their views on development of the manpower sector under joint initiatives.
-With New Age input
