Manpower brokers in big hundi racket buy job demands
September 12, 2008
Such illegal transactions spawn enormous malpractices forcing a large part of low-skilled workers into penury. But the government measures fail miserably in negotiating with labourer receiving countries to check frauds.
In the ’80s, the employers used to bear the expenditure to hire workers from the country. But later a syndicate of visa traders enticed the employers to take cheaply paid workers from them in exchange of commission, creating dozens of ways to exploit the workers.
The issues have surfaced following recent turmoil in the Middle East and Malaysia where Bangladeshi workers were unpaid, underpaid, abused and deported or were forced to return home.
Iftekhar assured of Kuwait’s bid to resolve workers’ problems
September 12, 2008
Foreign Affairs Adviser Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury Friday said the Kuwaiti authorities have assured him of every effort to resolve the problems faced by the Bangladeshi workers in Kuwait, reports UNB.
Iftekhar, also in charge of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, returned home early Friday after a two-day visit to Kuwait.
The Foreign Adviser mentioned that the Kuwaiti authorities announced an amnesty until October 15 for illegal workers to depart Kuwait without any legal impediments.
“To facilitate the Mission’s work in this regard, and also in response to public demand, we have decided to increase manpower at the (Bangladesh) Embassy,” he said.
“We’ve also engaged a Kuwaiti lawyer to protect our workers’ interests. I had a meeting with him as well,” Dr. Iftekhar Chowdhury said.
During the visit, the Adviser held discussions with Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mohamed Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, Labour Minister Bader Fahed Ali Al-Duwailah and other senior officials.
He also held two rounds of discussion with the members of the Bangladeshi community.
Talking to the media in the city Friday, the Foreign Adviser said the Kuwait authorities have assured him that a minimum wage of KD 40 is being fixed for the workers and their living conditions would be improved.
“The question of compensation to the deported labourers would be speedily addressed,” he said, adding: “Kuwait will also take stern action against the Kuwaiti companies who have exploited the Bangladeshis.”
Iftekhar informed that the Kuwaiti Parliament would meet in an emergency session on September 10 to discuss the crisis with regard to foreign workers, including Asians and Bangladeshis. “In that respect the visit was well-timed,” he said.
He said the Kuwaiti authorities see Bangladesh as “a great friend who stood by them at the hour of their greatest need during the Iraqi occupation.
“I also appreciated their support to our economic development. I urged them to take skilled manpower from Bangladesh in the future.
They also agreed to consider supporting some new projects in Bangladesh covering the Padma Bridge, Chittagong Port, and the Special Economic Zone in Sylhet.”
Dallah Group to recruit 5,000 unskilled workers
August 27, 2008
Dallah Group, one of the largest manpower recruiting companies of Saudi Arabia, will appoint 5,000 unskilled workers from Bangladesh soon, an adviser said Thursday.
This is the first time since March 24 that a Saudi company has offered to import Bangladeshi manpower.
Saudi Arabia on March 24 officially banned the intake of unskilled workers from Bangladesh.
“Dallah Group wants to recruit 5,000 unskilled Bangladeshi workers soon,” foreign affairs adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury told reporters.
The Group’s president Alwa Kamel called on the adviser in his office.
“The government is trying addresses some of the problems some workers are allegedly facing,” Iftekhar said.
The Saudi company has so far recruited over 15,000 Bangladeshis to its concerns.
Bangladesh offers to provide more manpower to Saudi Arabia
July 4, 2008
President Prof Iajuddin Ahmed Thursday said Bangladesh was ready to provide more skilled and unskilled manpower to Saudi Arabia for fulfilling the demand of the labour market of the oil-rich country, reports UNB.
He also said Saudi Arabia could import pharmaceutical products and medicines and explore the possibility of joint-venture investment in boosting Bangladesh’s readymade garment sector that would also benefit the Saudi investors. Read more
Task force identifies 747 corrupt recruiting firms
June 14, 2008
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.
Manpower brokers to be brought under legal framework
April 21, 2008
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.
Saudis ban Bangladeshi workers in two sectors
April 4, 2008
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. Read more
Bangladesh in Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008
April 4, 2008
Bangladesh
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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:
|
|
Rank |
Score |
|
USA |
1 |
5.67 |
|
Switzerland |
2 |
5.62 |
|
Denmark |
3 |
5.55 |
|
Sweden |
4 |
5.54 |
|
Germany |
5 |
5.51 |
|
Finland |
6 |
5.49 |
|
Singapore |
7 |
5.45 |
Asia’s best:
|
Singapore |
7 |
5.45 |
|
Japan |
8 |
5.43 |
|
Korea |
11 |
5.40 |
|
Taiwan |
14 |
5.25 |
|
Malaysia |
21 |
5.10 |
|
China |
34 |
4.57 |
|
Saudi Arabia |
35 |
4.55 |
Standing of the SAARC countries:
|
India |
48 |
4.33 |
|
Sri Lanka |
70 |
3.99 |
|
Pakistan |
92 |
3.77 |
|
Bangladesh |
107 |
3.55 |
|
Nepal |
114 |
3.38 |
Performance of Bangladesh:
Bangladesh ranked 107th out of 131 countries in 2007-2008. It was 92nd position out of 122 countries in 2006-2007.
The performance of Bangladesh in different parameters are as follows:
|
Basic requirements |
|
111 |
|
1st pillar |
Institution |
126 |
|
2nd pillar |
Infrastructure |
120 |
|
3rd pillar |
Macroeconomic stability |
87 |
|
4th pillar |
Heath & primary education |
105 |
|
Efficiency enhancers |
|
91 |
|
5th pillar |
Higher education & training |
126 |
|
6th pillar |
Goods market efficiency |
93 |
|
7th pillar |
Labor market efficiency |
76 |
|
8th pillar |
Financial sophistication |
75 |
|
9th pllar |
Technological readiness |
125 |
|
10th pillar |
Market size |
75 |
|
Innovation and sophistication |
|
111 |
|
11th pillar |
Business sophistication |
102 |
|
12th pillar |
Innovation |
117 |
Bangladesh Labor Market.
April 4, 2008
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.
7-point strategy to tap new manpower export market
January 29, 2008
The caretaker government announced a seven-point strategy to ensure the well-being of the Bangladeshi workers abroad and expand the manpower-export market worldwide by removing the prevailing hurdles, reports UNB.
Foreign and Overseas Employment Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury Wednesday announced the strategy, which includes exploring new manpower-export markets in the Scandinavian, European and East European countries like Norway, Sweden and Romania.
The strategy includes extension of the existing markets in the Middle-East, including Libya, enhancing skills in the English language, exporting manpower from Monga-affected areas, ensuring proper utilisation of remittances, ensuring strong monitoring to check fraud in manpower export, and working together with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Migration Organisation (IMO).
Speaking at a press briefing at the Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, the adviser said the government has adopted the strategy as it believes that the country’s prime foreign currency earnings would come from the manpower-export sector.
During the briefing, Overseas Employment secretary Abdul Matin Chowdhury noted that until September last, a total of 8,830 Bangladeshi citizens were in prisons in different countries across the world, either in police custody or under remand. Of them, 1,930 were convicted.
Of the convicts, the highest 636 Bangladeshi nationals are in Saudi jails.
Iftekhar Chowdhury said the Malaysian government is yet to convey any decision about suspending recruitment of Bangladeshi workers. “But, despite that, everyday, on an average, about 700 workers are leaving for Malaysia and the government is working on the issue so that the market could be resumed,” he said.
The caretaker government would deal with the manpower-export business in the new manpower markets taking lesson from Malaysian incidents, he informed. He also said a South Korean delegation is arriving in Dhaka on December 9 to discuss manpower import from Bangladesh.
He noted that an agreement would be signed between the Korean HRD and Bangladesh’s state-owned recruiting agency Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Service Limited (BOESL).
“Korea will recruit about 3,000 workers. Those who are now in Korea will get priority in recruitment as they have command on Korean language,” he added.
The diplomat-turned Adviser said a total of 526,171 Bangladeshi workers have gone abroad for jobs since the present caretaker government assumed office in January 2007.
He informed that a total of 764,903 workers were issued outgoing permits in last 11 months, of which 2,38,000 were waiting to fly. “This figure is the highest in any time in the history.”
The country received US$ 5.78 billion (Tk 40,323 crore) in remittance until November 22. “If the trend continues, the remittance flow will exceed US$ 6 billion,” the Adviser said.
BSS adds: Iftekhar also said the government will also introduce a strict system to monitor manpower recruiting agencies so that none of them could cheat people seeking employment abroad. The government already took action against Kabir Enterprise, for wrongdoings, but its licence was yet to be cancelled, he informed adding that for their misconduct punitive action was also taken against some officials at the Bangladesh High Commission in Malaysia.
The government, if required, would bring back the 49 Bangladeshis agitating in front of Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur as they did not get the jobs they were promised, he said replying to a question. The government was aware, he said, replying to a question, that some people were acting against Bangladesh’s interest in Malaysia.
Action would be taken against such elements in due course, he mentioned. The question of withdrawal of Malaysian ban on Bangladeshi manpower was being discussed by the two governments, he told a questioner.