Manpower Recruitment & Labor Marketplace in Bangladesh

Extorting money from workers, issuing fake visa, cheating govt of tax

The Task Force and other law enforcing agencies identified 747 corrupt manpower-recruiting agencies and cancelled the licences of 24 such firms recently. These manpower-recruiting agencies out of 757 in the country,(The New Nation)

violating Government rules and regulations, were extorting excess money from the overseas job seekers and cheating the Government on taxes.

Most of these agencies were collecting Tk 3.50 lakh to Tk 4 lakh per worker in the name of various office expenses under the very nose of the authorities concerned. The Government had fixed Tk 84,000 per labour for a work visa especially in the Middle East.

Moreover, these agencies were charging Tk 15 to Tk 20 lakh per person for sending them to the US, Europe and Australia with work visa. For a visit visa they were demanding Tk 10 to Tk 12 lakh per person.

Every day an average of 800 to 1,000 Bangladeshi workers are going to the following countries, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Yemen and Korea with work visa.

The Task Force source said, the agencies get some 50 offer letters for work visa from a particular embassy but they make 100 to 150 photocopies and sell those to unsuspecting job seekers by changing the names and addresses and pocket the extra money.

They were also involved in various other illegal activities such as sending people with fake visas, passport transfer, hundi and human trafficking.

The identified corrupt manpower-recruiting agencies run their business across the country through a large number of associates and their representatives or dalals.

These dalals buy passports at a throw away price from the returnees and hand those over to the corrupt recruiting agencies for onward sale. The recruiting agencies also buy snatched passports from the hijackers and sell those to the job seekers for a hefty amount.

These Bangladeshi youths go to foreign countries after being assured by the recruitment agencies but they face various problems abroad, as they are not provided with jobs as per contact. Many of them return home as they are charged with carrying fake visas and passports.

Due to the irregularities of the recruiting agencies many people are passing inhuman life abroad and around 3,000 workers from different foreign countries returned home during the last six months, according to sources.

Recently, the Government had signed an agreement with the government of UAE, which will help expand the labour market even further.

The Task Force found only 10 manpower recruiting agencies following the Government rules and regulations on sending workers abroad.

Foreign Adviser Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said the export of Bangladeshi manpower abroad is continuing and this year, so far 314,000 workers have been cleared for employment abroad. Out of this 225,000 have already departed for their destination.

“The remittances are also increasing. Already the amount has exceeded US $ 3 billion in the first four months. Again at this rate we could look forward to getting US $ 10 billion by the year end,” Iftekhar Chowdhury added.

Shunning the focus on merely addressing the current needs, the government should look to long-term goals emphasising gender issues while presenting a budget, speakers at a press conference yesterday said.

They said the prioritisation process should aim at achieving the broader goals of women-development issues instead of the three-year ‘mid-term budgetary framework’.

Unnayan Samannaya, Steps Towards Development, Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, Bangladesh Nari Pragati Sangha, ActionAid Bangladesh, Unifem Bangladesh and CIDA jointly organised the press conference on ‘National Budget 2008-09: Gender Analysis’, at Dhaka Reporters Unity auditorium in the city.

The speakers said transparency is needed in the gender statement of the proposed budget in order to ensure the utilisation of the funds allocated for women development.

Presenting the keynote paper, economist Dr Atiur Rahman said direct expenditure for women as proposed in the budget should be specific as it is not clear what amount will be spent on which sector meant for them.

He said though the budget proposes Tk 26,272 crore, or 26 percent of the budget, for ‘gender expenditure’, it does not draw the line between direct and indirect expenditures.

The remaining 74 percent of the budget is gender-blind, he said, adding that empowerment of women should be focused in order to prepare a women-friendly budget.

Dr Atiur, also chairman of the Unnayan Samannaya, lauded including women in the safety-net programmes but said the government should take measures to ensure that money earmarked for such programmes reach monga-stricken, haor and char areas where women are most vulnerable.

He placed stress on the effective implementation of the special social-protection programmes in the proposed budget.

Dr Atiur proposed introducing rationing system for female garment workers in order to ensure their food security.

“Quality of garment products will be compromised if female workers in the sector are not provided with proper food,” he said.

Stating that the ratio of men to women in tertiary education is 66:34, Dr Atiur called on the government to focus on increasing enrolment of women in tertiary and vocational education.

He urged the government to review VAT on health items and services meant exclusively for women through the ‘gender lens’.

Ranjan Karmakar, executive director of Steps Towards Development, Rokeya Kabir, executive director for Bangladesh Nari Pragati Sangha, Nahid Ahmed, national programme manager of Unifem Bangladesh, Nigar Sultana with ActionAid Bangladesh and Humayera Haq of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad were present at the press conference.

DHAKA, April 9 Asia Pulse - Saudi Deputy Minister for Labour Ahmed Abdulraham Al Mansour Tuesday urged the authorities in Bangladesh to send workers with adequate knowledge about Saudi culture, lack of which often embarrasses both the sides.

He also called for sending skilled workers in keeping with the changed labour market that prefers skilled hands, holding out offer of assistance for skill training.

“We can assist Bangladesh in developing skilled manpower, if necessary,” he told reporters after the Saudi-Bangladesh Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting in the NEC conference room.

Ahmed led the Saudi delegation while ERD secretary Aminul Islam Bhuiyan headed the host team to the two-day 9th JEC meeting that concluded Tuesday.

Welcoming skilled workers from Bangladesh, the Saudi Junior Minister said workers need to know the Saudi culture, social norms and values as well as the labour laws.

Lack of knowledge about the rules and regulation creates problem, he said, adding that outbound workers should also ensure that they have legally proper appointment letter and they should know their job in Saudi Arabia.

He noted that the Saudi labour market has changed a lot by now and authorities now prefer importing skilled workers.

Replying to a question, he said he would not bring sweeping charges against all the recruiting agencies that recruit workers to Saudi Arabia and allegedly cheat workers from Bangladesh.

He, however, suggested ensuring transparency of the local recruiting agencies.

The ERD secretary, Aminul Islam Bhuiyan, said the JEC had a fruitful meeting on bilateral issues, including manpower export, trade and commerce, economic cooperation and tourism. Labour issues dominated the talk.

During the meeting, the Saudi delegation members said that the Saudi government was examining the number of workers from different countries as against their respective quotas.

They also made it clear that it was not an isolated measure against Bangladesh.

The team further assured that the recent unrest by the Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia would not be a threat for sending Bangladesh workers to his country.

The government is mulling bringing manpower brokers under a legal framework and devise a mechanism for recruiting agencies to realise service charges from oversees job seekers based on their wages to reduce cost of going abroad for employment.

Brokers in manpower exporting and importing countries gobble up a substantial share of the money that the job seekers spend for overseas employment. The evil practice eventually raises the cost of migration, which in many cases the workers cannot retrieve from their wages during the job period.

This happens mainly in cases of unskilled workers, who constitute 50 to 60 percent of the migrant workforce, worsening their socio-economic condition.

“There are instructions from the higher authorities to devise an effective mechanism so that overseas job seekers are not forced to make undue payments,” said a high official of the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry.

Previous experience showed that the government’s fixation of cost for sending workers abroad did not work. For instance, cost of sending workers to Malaysia was fixed at Tk 84,000 each but each of the around four lakh workers spent Tk 2 lakh to Tk 2.5 lakh.

“So, we asked Baira (Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies) representatives to give their opinions on how recruiting agencies can reduce cost of labour migration,” the official told this correspondent.

Against this backdrop, experts have come up with ideas like recruiting agencies’ authorising middlemen and making them accountable in cases of cheating of job seekers, and even opening BMET (Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training) offices at upazila level.

The ministry official said one idea to cut high migration cost is that the recruiting agencies will realise service charges from aspirant migrants on the basis of their wages. If the agencies can arrange jobs with high wages, they will get high amounts.

“Such a mechanism may encourage recruiting agencies to find out better paid jobs,” he said.

The government has already formed a committee for legal reforms in immigration sector, and will take decisions based on opinions of Baira representatives so that these are complied with properly, the official mentioned.

Former executive committee member of Baira Abdul Alim said if service charges based on wages are introduced, recruiting agencies will advertise in newspapers on overseas jobs specifying required qualifications, wages and service charges. Since job seekers will then get all the information easily, middlemen will have no scope to tempt and cheat them.

Alim also said the government should allow recruiting agencies to set up offices and invest money to search for jobs in manpower importing countries. Most of the agencies now take money abroad through hundi to search for job demands.

Agency offices abroad can even help curb middlemen’s activities in the manpower receiving countries, Alim thought.

Baira’s former secretary general Ghulam Mustafa emphasised opening BMET offices in upazilas. Whenever recruiting agencies get information about job demands, they will submit those to the BMET for immediate passing on to all its offices across the country, he said.

“Under this system, overseas jobseekers will go to their nearest BMET offices, instead of going to middlemen, to know about the jobs and will then contact recruiting agency offices,” Mustafa said. This will greatly reduce middlemen’s dominance and cheating of job seekers, he felt.

Authorising the middlemen to operate as representatives of recruiting agencies may be helpful to some extent but it may also be seriously abused, he said. To abolish middlemen system in labour receiving countries, Bangladesh should sign bilateral agreements with those countries, he suggested.

Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) Coordinator Prof Dr CR Abrar however said the earlier rules that recruiting agencies should publish job demands in newspapers did not work. Rather, middlemen continued to exploit jobseekers in various ways.

He said a better option to be relieved of the middlemen is hiring jobseekers from the BMET database, which should be properly maintained.

“Now, the unauthorised middlemen are out of control. Once they are recognised and provided identity cards, they can be caught in cases of fraudulent practices,” Dr Abrar said.

The government should also allow recruiting agencies to invest money abroad for market research, he suggested.

 Riyadh: Saudi Labour Minister Dr Gazi Al Gosaibi has clarified that the decision to stop hiring of Bangladeshi workers was in the housing and agricultural sectors.

“This decision was taken in view of the fact that the quota fixed for Bangladeshi workers in the kingdom was over,” Gosaibi said.

“Their hiring would be restricted to medical and engineering fields. However, there will be an exception for the jobs in the maintenance and cleaning sectors with the condition that their percentage in all the sectors should not exceed 20 per cent,” he told reporters here on Sunday.

The minister’s clarification came amid rumours that the Kingdom had halted hiring Bangladeshis altogether after media reports pointing to their involvement in most of the criminal acts.

 Saudi Arabia is Bangladesh’s largest labour market whose number has exceeded 1.5 million. Bangladeshi workers got the biggest share (23.5 per cent of the 1.5 million) of Saudi visas issued in 2007. According to labour market sources, Bangladeshi workers might be replaced by workers from India, Thailand and Myanmar.

Dr Al Gosaibi said the Kingdom’s policy of rationalising recruitment is based on several factors, and most important among them is achieving balance among various nationals who have been hired in the labour market. However, the minister hinted that there may be a reviewing of the decision with regard to Bangladeshis in future.

A spokesman for Bangladeshi Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry recently admitted that some Bangladeshis in Saudi Arabia were engaged in illegal activities such claiming shops illegally, selling banned CDs, running illegal telephone business, stealing manhole covers from roads and footpaths, stealing electricity and telephone cables, and printing fake currency, as reported by Saudi media, in utter violation of the Saudi laws.

“Such acts put the image of Bangladeshi workers in the Kingdom and Bangladesh in a bad light. The Ministry had already asked the Bangladeshi workers to abide by the Saudi laws,” he said.

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‘The Global Competitiveness Report’ is a publication of World Economic Forum. 

‘The Global Competitiveness Report has evolved over the last 3 decades into world most comprehensive and respected assessment of countries competitiveness, offering insight into the policies, institutions and factors driving productivity & then, enabling sustained economic growth and long term prosperity’.

‘Produced in collaboration with leading academicians and global network of research institutions the Global Competitiveness Report provides users with competitiveness indicators for a large numbers of industrialized and developing economies’.

This year edition features a record 131 economies, accounting for more than 98% of the world GDP.

Besides hard data from the leading institutional source, indicators include results of the executive opinion surveyed by the World Economic Forum annually. The survey covered perception of several thousand business leaders on topics related to national competitiveness.

The parameters which were considered in Basic Requirements are institutions, infrastructures, macroeconomic stability, health and primary education; in Efficiency Enhancers higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market sophistication, technological readiness, market size and in Innovation and Business sophistication are business sophistication and innovation

Global Competitiveness ranking:

Seven best in the world:

Asia’s best:

Standing of the SAARC countries:

Performance of Bangladesh:

Bangladesh ranked 107^th out of 131 countries in 2007-2008. It was 92^nd position out of 122 countries in 2006-2007.

The performance of Bangladesh in different parameters are as follows:

High cost of migration coupled with reduction of international demands are thwarting the promotion of manpower export of Bangladesh.

The country’s manpower export to traditional markets like the Middle East countries is declining and an unhealthy competition among the recruiting agencies is increasing the cost of migration, The Daily Star reported Sunday.

A worker now pays 200,000 to 230,000 taka (3,077 to 3,538 US dollars) for a job of a cleaner in Saudi Arabia whereas the cost was 140,000 to 170,000 taka (2,153 to 2,615 dollars) only a few months ago.

The crises have been aggravated as the importing countries are now encouraging the employers to hire their own unemployed youths.

The massive decline in Saudi demand has pushed down overall manpower export 15.45 percent in 2005 compared to 2004.

Malaysia, which had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Bangladesh to hire its workers back in October 2003, reportedly shied away from the commitment.

The government was accused for failing to explore new markets. Manpower recruiting agencies in the country suggested formation of a government cell for finding out new markets and for preparing the human resources accordingly in collaboration with the education ministry.

The labor force in 1998 was estimated at approximately 64 million workers. In 1996, approximately 11% of the civilian labor force was employed in the industrial sector. Agriculture accounted for 63% of workers, and service employees were 26% of the labor force. Statistics are unreliable because of a large, informal, unreported market. The unemployment rate in 2001 was estimated at 35%.

Although 1.8 million out of the five million workers in the formal sector of the economy were unionized, this represented only a small fraction of the economically active population. Most unions are affiliated with political parties. Strikes are a common form of workers protest. There are industrial tribunals to settle labor disputes. The government can impose labor settlements through arbitration, as well as by declaring a strike illegal. Unions have become progressively more aggressive in asserting themselves, especially on the political scene.

Public sector workers’ wages are set by the National Pay and Wages Commission and may not be disputed. In the private sector, wages are set by industry, and collective bargaining rarely occurs due to high unemployment and workers’ concerns over job security. The legal workweek is 48 hours, with one day off mandated. This law is rarely enforced, especially in the garment industry. Children under the age of 14 are prohibited by law to work in factories but may work (under restricted hours) in other industries. However, such restrictions are rarely enforced and children work in every sector of the economy. In 2002, the government estimated that 6.6 million children between the ages of five and 14 years were engaged in all types of employment activities, many that were harmful to their well-being.

Bangladesh has an agrarian economy with 32% of GDP coming from the Agriculture Sector. In recent years, the country is doing much better in some sectors, but the proper balance is required for achieving positive goals. Bangladesh has recently achieved significant growth of GDP. But, the problem also remains that the growth rate of GDP is dominated by agriculture while manufacturing is weak. Lack of democratic practice and corruption works as obstacles to achieving government targets. If the government is not successful in creating a favorable investment climate and investment does not match the savings rate, then the ability to achieve the targeted level of GDP growth will remain in doubt. To attract investment, the government should readjust the rate of interest and should create a political atmosphere that will be favorable for domestic as well as foreign investment. Policies that promote remittances would also be helpful to stabilize economy. With high population growth continuing to expand the economically active population and the simultaneous employment cuts in privatized industries, the labour market situation in Bangladesh is fragile. Relatively high rates of inflation combined with high levels of unemployment may lower real wages. To overcome these problems, the government should create job opportunities and should take initiatives to run industries. Within the policy of privatization, the government may take measures towards creating jobs and managing industries. Since the world economy is volatile, Bangladesh faces both risks and opportunities. Unless we can devise far-sighted strategies, we risk remaining marginalized in the increasing global flow of commodities, capital, information and technology.

A total of 8,32,609 Bangladeshi workers were given immigration clearance to go abroad with employment till December 31, 2007 since the present Caretaker government came to power.

Of which, more than five lakh 71 thousand workers were sent to different countries including Malaysia with employment, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment ministry sources told the news agency yesterday.

Bangladeshis working abroad, a key source of economic stability, sent home a record of $6.57 billion in 2007 equivalent to Tk 45,683 crore. The record remittances also pushed up Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserve, the sources said.

The countries, where Bangladeshi workforce went include Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Libya, Kuwait, Singapore, Brunei, Jordan, UK, Italy, Mauritius, Lebanon and Ireland.

The sources said that with the timely action taken by the government new labour markets have been created in countries like South Korea, Poland, Canada, Rumania, Russia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Angola, Nigeria and South Africa. New labour market is likely to be opened up in Cyprus. Expatriate Ministry sources further said that after a gap of 10 years, Malaysia started importing manpower from Bangladesh from October 22, 2006. And so far two lakh 45 thousand 16 workers went to Malaysia till December 31, 2007.
On average four hundred to seven hundred Bangladeshi workers have been going to Malaysia everyday although Malaysia had put a temporary ban on import of manpower.
The present government signed memorandum of understanding with some countries for export of manpower from the country.

The countries include, The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman and Qatar. Dhaka and Seoul signed an agreement on the commencement of recruiting Bangladeshi manpower in South Korea under the country’s new Employment Permit System (EPS) for foreign job seekers.

The deal styled ‘Service Commitment Agreement was signed between Human Resources Department (HRD) of Korea and Bangladesh Overseas Employment Services Ltd (BOESL). However Korean language skill is a must for getting job there. The government of Oman lifted a bar on recruitment of Bangladeshi workers after 12 years and expressed desire to recruit skilled workforce from the country.

The Omani minister for manpower Dr. Juma bin Ali bin Juma during his visit to Dhaka recently had announced the lifting of bar. Presently some 130,000 Bangladeshis are employed in the tiny oil rich Gulf State. Oman requires skilled manpower like doctors, engineers, technicians and other professionals. 

The sources said that Bangladesh and Qatar on January 6 this year signed an additional protocol to recruit more workers especially skilled workforce from the country for the Gulf State.

Qatar is interested in recruiting skilled professionals like academics, engineers and IT experts apart from semi-and unskilled workers. More than 15,000 workers went to Qatar in 2007.

The government has provided Tk 11. 25 crore from the wage earners welfare fund to the dependents of 1,125 deceased workers and 45 injured workers during January, 07 to November 07. There are 764 recruiting agencies in the country. The government received 256 complaints against different recruiting agencies from January ‘07 to November ‘07. Some 142 complaints were resolved while Taka one crore 56 lakh were realised from the accused agencies and given to the Complainants.

During the same period license of four recruiting agencies were cancelled for different irregularities.

Replying to question to a question on the problems faced by the Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia, expatriate welfare and overseas employment secretary Abdul Matin Chowdhury said that problem arises when the workers find their job tough for them and want to be employed elsewhere. “This problem can not be solved quickly,” he added.
Chowdhury said the officials of the Labour wing of the Bangladesh missions abroad have been advised to visit the working sites and camps on regular basis to sort out the problems of Bangladeshi workers with the employers.

Bangladesh will sign a deal with South Korea on recruitment of workforce under a new arrangement styled Employment Permit System (EPS), private news agency UNB reported Saturday.

A regular meeting of the council of advisers chaired by Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed on Saturday approved a proposal on manpower export to South Korea at government level through the EPS, introduced by the Far Eastern country this year.

Earlier, they used to recruit manpower on the basis of Industrial Training System (ITS), which has been revoked recently.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) is expected to be signed during Foreign Affairs Adviser Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury’s Seoul visit on June 4-6.

The MOU would protect the interest and rights of Bangladeshi workforce in South Korea, where now around 12,000 Bangladeshis work and the new deal could take in some 10,000 more, the report said.

Under the EPS, South Korea will recruit a total of some 50,000 skilled manpower from 14 countries, including Bangladesh.

The estimated 10,000 skilled workers of Bangladesh would be drawn from four categories — construction, manufacture, services, and agriculture, fisheries and livestock.