Decline in remittances likely: The govt. should take necessary steps
August 27, 2008
Remittance by non-resident Bangladeshis rose by 31 percent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year from that of the same period last fiscal year. According to the report, Bangladesh Bank as saying that remittances in the July-May period this FY totaled more than 7.16 billion US dollar equivalent to 49, 060 crore taka against 5.46 billion dollar in the corresponding period of last FY. But economists fear that the rise may face a downward trend as major labour markets in Bahrain and Malaysia have banned fresh manpower recruitment from Bangladesh.
The government should take all necessary steps to convince the two countries to change their decisions. Failing which would badly affect the remittance inflow. Another debacle in getting foreign jobs is the lack of command of the language of the country of destination. The director of the Institute of Modern Languages has said that learning foreign languages could help people, especially young people, get good jobs at home and abroad. Procedural bungling also greatly hampers manpower export to foreign countries forcing thousands of job seekers to wait for indefinite periods.
Some 14,000 workers completed all formalities for flying to Malaysia but their departure was delayed for long just because the flights couldn’t carry more than 700 people daily. This was a great loss for the country. The debacle happened amid government’s failure to find new destinations of employment abroad in the past years. Remittances from non-resident workers are very important for the country’s economy. The government must understand we need to export manpower for earning foreign exchange. Besides, manpower export is a big solace to our unemployment problem. Hence the government should try to address the problem at the earliest.
Bahrain extends Bangladeshi ban
August 27, 2008
Bahrain will not renew the work permits of thousands of Bangladeshis working in the Gulf state, in a ban expected to heavily impact the nation’s construction industry.
The decision not to renew work permits follows Monday’s announcement from the Interior Ministry that permits would no longer be issued to Bangladeshis, Bahrain’s Gulf Daily News reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper said it had been confirmed on Tuesday that Bahrain would not renew the work permits of Bangladeshi expats once they expired. The newspaper did not give further details.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa on Monday ordered authorities to stop issuing work permits to Bangladeshis, after the alleged brutal murder of a Bahraini national by a mechanic from the Asian nation.
Samir Nass, chairman of Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), said small contracting companies’ dependant on Bangladeshi labour will be hit the hardest by the ban.
“There are many contractors who rely on the cheap labour from Bangladesh…we hope a mechanism is put in place where the ban would be done in a way that minimises the impact on ongoing projects,” Nass told the newspaper.
The ban comes at a time when manpower is already in short supply, while many projects face delays from material shortages, and demands of increased wages from workers, he added.
The accused Bangladeshi was charged with premeditated murder on Friday for allegedly slitting the throat of Mohammed Jassim Dossary with a hacksaw after a disagreement over payment for work on the victim’s car.
The murder outraged some Bahraini government officials, who demanded the deportation of more than 100,000 Bangladeshi labourers from the kingdom.
The government officials have repeatedly claimed Bangladeshi immigrants are behind the nation’s growing crime problems.
Bahrain MP Abdul Halim Murad had called on the government to “put a timetable for the deportation of Bangladeshi labourers from Bahrain after their repeated involvement in murders and other crimes”.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Embassy head Saif Al-Islam said the move had left him and his colleagues in shock and the embassy would appeal against it.
“For one person the government is punishing a whole nation, which is not acceptable to us. We will appeal to the government to reconsider this…we will ask them at least to delay implementing this restriction,” he said.
Saudi govt not issuing residential permits
July 20, 2008
Thousands of Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia are fearing deportation as the Saudi authorities are not issuing residential permits to those willing to join new jobs on expiry of their present contracts.
Sources said residential permits have not been issued to expatriate Bangladeshi workers seeking new jobs for the last two to three months, which will result in a gradual decrease in their number in the Middle Eastern country. About 15 lakh Bangladeshi migrants are currently living in Saudi Arabia.
Bangladeshi workers living in Saudi Arabia usually return home on expiry of their job contracts. But, if any of them gets a new job, the worker can join it after getting another residential permit from the Saudi authorities, said officials at the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET).
Talking to The Daily Star over telephone, Mohammad Fazle Rabbi, a Bangladeshi physician in Saudi Arabia, said he along with other Bangladeshi doctors, nurses and technicians has been working at the Rijal Almaa Hospital in Assir region for a long time.
On expiry of job contracts, many of them got the chance to work under the Saudi health ministry while a few managed to get jobs at private hospitals. But the Saudi authorities did not issue them residential permits.
Fazle Rabbi said his present job contract expires on June 14 and he will have to return home despite having an offer for a new job.
He said although they informed the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh of the matter, it is yet to take any step.
However, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Secretary Abdul Matin Chowdhury said Riyadh has not officially informed them of any decision on not issuing residential permits for Bangladeshi workers who want to join new jobs on expiry of their present contracts.
Saudi Arabia in March this year decided to introduce a nation-based quota system for foreign workers.
Later, Saudi Labour Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi declared a partial ban on recruitment of Bangladeshis as house help and agricultural labourers.
He also said recruitment of Bangladeshis would be limited to Saudi organisations that need qualified workers in the medical and engineering sectors.
Saudi Arabia Suggests Bangladesh Workers Know Saudi Culture
April 21, 2008
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.
Over eight lakh workers went abroad with job last year, says ministry
January 29, 2008
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.
Manpower Recruitment and Labor Marketplace in Bangladesh › Create New Post — WordPress
December 2, 2007
Manpower Recruitment and Labor Marketplace in Bangladesh › Create New Post
Bangladesh seeks priority category for manpower export under WTO (News From Bangladesh)
December 2, 2007
A senior official of the WTO Cell of the commerce ministry said the negotiation for recruitment of manpower under some broad categories by the developed countries from the least developed countries (LDCs) has now been continuing.