Mauritius to send back 6,000 Bangladeshi workers

Bangladesh’s overseas job market is set to get another blow in months as Mauritius authorities have decided to send some 6000 Bangladeshi workers back home in six months citing global recession impacts. This will be the second biggest case of job loss after Malaysia had cancelled over 55,000 job visas in March.
Quoting local workers union Reuters on Wednesday reported that Mauritius asked those Bangladeshis, 4000 of whom work in clothing factories, to leave by the end of 2009 in a move to protect local jobs in the recession-hit textile sector.
These workers will join several thousand others, who returned home from major Asian job markets, including the UAE, in recent months. The government’s ministry concerned does not have any real data on the silent job losses in overseas destinations, but there are reports that hundreds of Bangladeshi workers are in constant threats of job cuts in the Middle East.
Lakhs of Bangladeshi jobseekers had lost their hopes for a living in Malaysia as the Southeast Asian giant in March abruptly cancelled visas for 55,147 Bangladeshis approved in 2007.
There was no immediate confirmation of the report of the massive job cut in Mauritius either from the government or from private recruiters, but a senior bureaucrat said the government has very little scope to save the jobs of those ill-fated youths.
‘Workers go there [in Mauritius] through contracts with companies. Therefore, we have little to do to protect their jobs,’ said Elais Ahmed, secretary in-charge of the expatriate welfare and overseas employment ministry.
He told New Age Wednesday that the government did not receive any message about the reported massive workers’ retrenchment from the government of the island nation.
‘We will get in touch with the authorities of Mauritius through our mission in Kenya to verify the information,’ he added.
Kazi Mohammed Mofizur Rahman, secretary general of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), told this correspondent he was not aware of such development of Bangladeshi workers in Mauritius.
‘Following the economic crisis, the textile sector is suffering and some companies need to sack workers in order to survive. So the government has decided to repatriate the Bangladeshis,’ Reaz Chuttoo, president of the Confederation for Private Sector Workers, told Reuters late on Tuesday.
Senior trade union officials said the government hoped to safeguard Mauritian jobs in a sector shaken over the last 12 months by record high oil prices, a strong local unit and the global economic downturn.
Unemployment in Mauritius rose to eight per cent during the first quarter of 2009 from 6.2 per cent in the previous quarter, despite a $320 million stimulus package in December to bolster jobs.
‘If this decision was meant to encourage local firms to employ Mauritians and reduce the unemployment rate I would have understood,’ said Fayzal Ally Beegun, chairman of the textile manufacturing and allied industries workers union.
‘But local people are not interested in the textile sector after labour market reforms made it easier to hire and fire,’ said the leader.
Government officials declined to explain why they were expelling the Bangladeshis.
Jean Francois Chaumiere, labour minister said, ‘It is a government decision. We are going to ensure that they receive all their dues before leaving.’
BAIRA officials earlier feared more job cuts in major Asian job markets, including the UAE, due to impact of global economic recession. They urged the government to parley with the governments and employers there for approving long-term leave for Bangladeshis instead of retrenching them.
There were demands for creating a special budgetary fund for rehabilitating the returnees, but nothing significant has been done in this regard so far.
After Malaysia on March 10, 2009 cancelled 55,147 visas for Bangladeshis, the government had lobbied hard for withdrawal of the ban. Kuala Lumpur assured Dhaka of responding positively once the economic meltdown was over.
Despite job cut fears, Bangladeshis living abroad are still sending significant amount of foreign currencies. Remittance inflow during 2008-09 fiscal reached a record high of $9.68 billion, marking a 22.23 per cent growth over the past year.
Over six million expatriate workers sent a record $ 911 million in June.
‘The inward remittance flow may cross $10 billion in the current fiscal, providing stronger cushion to the external trade and stabilizing the exchange rate,’ said a senior official of Bangladesh Bank.
Last year, Bangladeshis living abroad sent over $9 billion in remittances.
Economists and global lenders fear that remittance inflow would slow in the coming months with more cut in jobs and workers’ wage as a visible recovery from global recession would take at least two more years to start.

Courtesy of NewAgebd