Looking for new manpower markets abroad

To the worry over the decline in the earnings from foreign remittance due to the rise in the use of informal channel for money transfer by the migrant workers abroad, a new anxiety has been added.  

It concerns, as reported in this paper in its March 13 issue, the fall of manpower export to Malaysia, the second largest host nation for Bangladeshi workers after Saudi Arabia, by 24 percent during the past two months (January and February) of the current year compared to the same period last year (2023).

The Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) earlier reported that in December last year, manpower export from Bangladesh to different countries fell by 13.78 percent compared to the previous month (November, 2023).

Obviously, this is a cause for concern as remittance is the second biggest source of hard currency after export.

This negative trend in the terminal month of last year, however, stands in sharp contrast to the overall performance of the sector in that year compared to the year before (2022).

The data provided by the BMET and Bangladesh Bank (BB) further show that manpower export last year rose by 15.15 percent compared to the previous year. Even so, what was of concern is the fall in the rate of remittance inflow (not in absolute amount, which actually increased slightly by 2.96 percent year-on-year) vis-à-vis that of 2022.

Clearly, a mixed signal is coming from the manpower export sector. But the fall in manpower export in any major destination like Malaysia needs to be taken seriously. It is more so because unlike the Middle East countries where the majority of Bangladeshi migrant workers go, the weather of this Southeast Asian country is temperate like Bangladesh's and hence comfortable for workers.

More importantly, the salary structure for the workers in that country is better as a newly recruited worker would be paid at least 1,500 Malaysian ringgit, equivalent to Tk 37,000, per month. In Saudi Arabia, the prime destination of Bangladesh's migrant labourers, the wages for low and unskilled workers range between BDT 25,000 and BDT30,000.

So, given the developments, Bangladesh's diplomatic mission in Malaysia needs to be on its toes and keep the government at home informed about the upcoming changes, if any, in the recruitment policy of foreign labourers in that country.

The ministry concerned here might communicate with its Malaysian counterpart to improve the prospects for export of Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia.

Against this backdrop, the fall in labour export to Malaysia also calls for increasing the government's effort to explore new export destinations for Bangladeshi manpower, particularly in the industrial economies both in Asia, Europe and elsewhere.

As with commodities export, too much dependence on a single item is fraught with danger, so is it with manpower export.

According to different sources, Bangladeshi migrant workers have been sending money home from 137 countries of the world. In an overwhelming number of cases, their journeys were illegal, hence risky and more often than not life-threatening. Many met with tragic ends during their perilous journeys.

This certainly calls for making official channels of manpower export less expensive, hassle-free and friendly towards jobseekers abroad so that they may not choose the dangerous path to go abroad.

Of course, Bangladesh's diplomatic missions abroad have a crucial role to play in this regard.