Manpower export continued to fall in the first three months of this year after plunging in the previous year, hitting remittance inflow, according to Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training. The downward trend in the labour migration and remittance continued since 2013 due to a gradual shrinking of recruitment of the migrant workers, BMET officials said.
The major recipient countries of Bangladeshi workers in the Middle East are now interested to recruit ‘only skilled female workers’ instead of the male workers from Bangladesh, they said.
According to BMET statistics on overseas employment, a total of 96,068 workers went abroad with jobs from January to March of the current year while some 1,07,626 had gone abroad with jobs during the same period in 2013, showing a decline of 11,567 overseas employment in three months.
BMET also 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.
According to statistics available at the BMET, the remittance inflow also started declining during the current year compared with that of last year.
Bangladesh has so far received remittances of about $3,703 million from January to March of current year while it had received remittances of $3,719 million during the same period in 2013.
The official record showed that the country received remittances of $13.83 billion from January to December in 2013 against the remittance of $14.16 billion in same period in 2012.
BMET officials, however, said that overseas employment of female workers significantly increased although Bangladesh witnessed a negative growth of remittance inflow and drastic fall of labour migration in 2013.
The statistics showed that a total of 10,232 female workers migrated to different countries during January and February of the current year while some 7,542 female workers had gone abroad with jobs in first two months in 2013.
About 56,000 female workers left Bangladesh with overseas jobs in 2013 while 37,304 female workers went aboard with jobs in 2012.
The female workers, mostly housemaids and garment workers, were being employed in Jordan, Lebanon, UAE, Oman and Qatar, BMET officials said.
Demand for the female workers increased in Middle East countries as Indonesia and Philippines, the suppliers of domestic helps, have stopped sending female workers demanding better salaries, they said.
Some high-level delegations from the Middle East countries including UAE, Oman and Bahrain recently visited Bangladesh and placed demands for recruiting ‘skilled female workers’ from Bangladesh, BMET director general Begum Shamsun Nahar said recently.
The Bangladesh government, however, emphasised on comprehensive recruitment of both male and female workers from Bangladesh allowing their employment in all sectors, she said.
-With New Age input
