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Punish the unscrupulous manpower agents

I want to convey my thanks to Mr Shamsul Huq Zahid for his column in the FE in which he wrote about the plight of the expatriate Bangladeshis. As an expatriate for 8 years I would like to tell you something regarding greedy manpower agency owners who are responsible for degrading the image of the country and plight of workers abroad. Really, it is a shame for us who are cleaning the road and collecting the Pepsi cans from the dustbin.

Those who are doing the odd jobs should not be blamed because they paid Tk 2/3 lakh each for getting employment abroad. But guilty are the unscrupulous manpower agencies, and corrupt politicians who are enjoying the benefit of remittance. It will be highly appreciated if you through your column ask the politicians, who govern our country, but never take actions against the unscrupulous agencies. Are they really strong to control the manpower agents? Do they get commission from them? I am waiting for the day when these criminal manpower agents will be punished publicly.

JITCO offers help to export manpower to Japan

Dhaka and Tokyo on Monday signed a new loan agreement of 6.96 billion yen equivalent to $65 million for emergency disaster damage rehabilitation project.

The Bangladesh foreign affairs adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury and his Japanese counterpart Masahiko Koumura signed the deal on behalf of their respective governments after their bilateral meeting.

Iftekhar is now in Japan on a four-day tour.

The rehabilitation project with the loan will be launched following the signed agreement, said a Japanese embassy release. The loan is provided as co-financing with Asian Development Bank.

The objective of the project is to support quick restoration of economic and social activity in the areas, damaged by the floods in 2007 and cyclone Sidr, through providing speedy disbursement type of import financing for essential agricultural commodities as well as rehabilitating and reconstructing damaged public infrastructures and thereby contributing to sustainable economic growth.

The Government of Japan believes that the quick disbursement component, amounting to 2,965 million yen (equivalent to Tk 1.89 billion or $27.7 million), will help the Government of Bangladesh meet immediate financial requirement for recovery from the flood and cyclone damages and purchase essential food commodities over the next few months.

In addition, Japanese government expects that disaster-resistance design to be adopted in rehabilitating and reconstructing infrastructures will contribute to mitigation of damage from future recurrent floods and cyclones.

Meanwhile, Japan International Training Cooperation Organisation has assured that it will facilitate the manpower export to Japan from Bangladesh.

JITCO president Toshio Takano gave the assurance when the Bangladesh foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury called on him at his office in Tokyo Monday morning, said a release of the foreign ministry.

The meeting decided that JITCO would organise visits by Japanese recruiting firms to Bangladesh and work with the expatriates welfare and overseas employment ministry.

Quoting the adviser the release said only 12 trainees from Bangladesh came to Japan in the past. ‘This is not satisfactory. Now Bangladesh has a huge potential to satisfy the demand for workers in Japan. JITCO can provide language training in centres already existing in Bangladesh.’

Apart from Toshio Takano, senior vice-president of JITCO Takashi Kamitani, Bangladesh ambassador to Tokyo Ashraf-ud-Doula, Japanese ambassador to Dhaka Masahiko Inoue and director general of Far East Wing of the foreign affairs ministry Shahidul Islam were present at the meeting.

Bangladesh must gear itself to exporting more skilled labour

Bangladesh must gear itself to sending more skilled workers abroad, said speakers at a roundtable Saturday.

Prof Muzaffer Ahmed, chairman of Transparency International Bangladesh, called for a change in the education system to create more skilled manpower for export.

Speaking at the roundtable on ‘Manpower Export and Prospects: What to do to check cheating’, he said: “There are growing demands for skilled manpower in the world. So the present education system has to be changed to produce that skilled manpower.”

“When I attended my local zila school, I learnt about agriculture, metalwork and carpentry.”

“Now these schools do not provide such educations. There is doubt about the quality of the country’s 900 government and private colleges,” the TIB chairman said.

He went on to address the recruiting process for overseas workers: “Our embassies are not efficient. There is doubt whether our embassies abroad have the proper papers of those who are going to work in other countries. The responsibility of the recruiting agency should be to reach those papers to the embassy in the (target) country.”

“Alongside exporting manpower, ensuring workers have the skills required by providing training is also the responsibility of the recruiting agencies,” Prof Muzaffer said.

“The remittance process should also be made easier.”

On salaries of overseas workers, the TIB chairman said: “If India can bargain over the minimum salary of their workers, then why can’t we?”

Executive director of NGO ‘Shishuk’, Shakiul Millat Morshed, pointed out that 25 years ago the minimum wage in Middle Eastern states was around 750 dirham, but now it has fallen to just 350 dirham.

Prof Atiur Rahman of Dhaka University said the middlemen play a big role in exporting manpower.

“How these middlemen can be brought under a legal framework is the biggest challenge now. Giving them licences could be considered.”

The Dhaka University professor said how to send more skilled manpower to Western Europe, Russia and Korea should be considered seriously.

President of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies, Golam Mostafa, said licensed recruiting agencies cheated workers less, but went on to claim that the ministry of expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment does not provide the expected cooperation.

Former inspector general of police ASM Shahjahan said: “The workers must themselves be made aware of their rights and these issues in order to curb cheating and bring more transparency in the system.”

Sustainable policies must be formulated for the welfare of overseas workers, he added.

Sheba Bangladesh Foundation and Prochesta Kalyan Sangstha organised the roundtable at the LGED auditorium in the city Saturday.

Govt fixes minimum wage for unskilled workers at 550 SR

Task force identifies 747 corrupt recruiting firms

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.

Prioritise broader goals of women development

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.

Manpower brokers to be brought under legal framework

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.

Bangladesh in Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008

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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 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:

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

Association of Recruiting Agencies engaged in Manpower Export (BAIRA)

Association of Recruiting Agencies engaged in Manpower Export (BAIRA)

There are about seven hundred licensed private recruiting agents engaged in manpower export. They have association under the name and style of Bangladesh Association international Recruiting Agencies (BAI RA). BAIRA cooperates With the Ministry in implementing rules, regulation and directives of the Ministry. The present number of BAIRA members is 1028.
Aims and Objectives of BAIRA

1. To promote and protect the rights and interests of the members of the association in particular and the trade, commerce and industries of Bangladesh in general;

2. To promote, advise and assist in the business activities of the members of the association, to make all out efforts for providing Bangladeshis with job abroad;

3. To co-ordinate the activities of the licensed recruiting agents approved by the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh for arranging employment’s of Bangladesh abroad and to create unity amongst the licensed recruiting agents;

4. To develop an understanding and awareness of Government notification, rules and regulations regarding the overseas employment of manpower amongst the member recruiting agents;

5. To advise Government to amend, alter or modify orders in this regard from time to time keeping the interest of the country;

6. To take all steps by lawful means that may be necessary for promoting, supporting or opposing legislation or any other action effecting the general interests of member recruiting agents;

7. To establish close and intimate liaison with foreign missions in Bangladesh with a view to provide employment of Bangladeshi citizens in their respective countries;

8. To keep in touch with Bangladesh Embassies or other reliable agencies for creating job opportunities for Bangladeshi citizens in different countries;

9. To invite delegations from countries having potential for employment of skilled and un-skilled Bangladeshi workers with a view to acquainting them with the vast hard working manpower available in Bangladesh, after getting prior permission form the Government;

10. To assist Government and non-Government delegations coming to Bangladesh to select appropriate manpower by cultivating close liaison with them;

11. To send delegation from the association abroad for creating proper awareness amongst the intending employers about skilled and un-skilled workers of Bangladesh;

12. To print brochures, booklets and leaflets of skilled workers of Bangladesh and circulate these abroad with the help of Government;

13. To make efforts to ensure distribution of all privileges and facilities to all member recruiting agents fairly and equitably;

14. To distribute all offers received by the association for employment in the private and the public sectors equitably amongst the member-recruiting agents;

15. To create association’s own Trade Institute in order to assist each and every member-recruiting agent appropriate and capable manpower;

16. To establish association’s own training center to assist and offer training to all candidates selected for employment abroad on manners, customs and foreign languages etc;

17. To assist all member-recruiting agents about rules, regulations, procedures, visa entry permits by procuring them from different countries and making them available to the members;

18. To make all efforts and take all steps to remove difficulties and bottlenecks faced by the member-agents;

19. To remove difficulties and inconveniences of the workers sent abroad by the member-recruiting agents ;

20. To make efforts to remove complaints and misunderstanding amongst the foreign employers about manpower sent by member-recruiting agents;

21. To maintain regular liaison by visits of responsible executives to overseas employers and their Bangladeshi employees;

22. To organize welfare measures for the Bangladeshi workers abroad and their beneficiaries at home;

23. To encourage the Bangladeshi workers working abroad for remit maximum of their foreign exchange earning to the country through regular official channels;

24. To encourage and advise the Bangladeshi migrants abroad and their beneficiaries at home for investments of investments of their foreign exchanges in the productive pursuits in the country;

25. To undertake initiatives for repatriation and payment of compensation to the persons wrongly selected and sent abroad;

26. To provide assistance for bringing the dead body of Bangladesh workers to the country or for its proper disposal, as the case may be, in co-operation with foreign employers;

27.  To obtain labor laws of the labor importing countries and to disseminate the information of those laws among the Bangladeshi migrant workers;

28. To fix annual target of business for each member agency and to help them to achieve the same;

29. To monitor the monthly activities for the member agencies to the Ministry of Labor and Manpower, Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training and Bangladesh Manpower Planning Center through a proforma to be prepared by Bangladesh Manpower Planning Center;

30. To submit annual report to the Ministry of Labor and Employment by each member agency dealing with their total activities during every calendar year.

31. To report to Ministry, Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training and Bangladesh Manpower Planning Center the amount of fees actually charged from job seekers of various categories;

32. To explore job market in different parts of the world in addition to the countries in the Middle East;

33. To explore job opportunities for skilled and professional personnel as well;

34. To set-up branch offices as an when required in different parts of the country & the globe with a view to fulfilling the aims and objects of the association;

35. To do all such other things as are incidental or conducive to the attainment of the above objects

Bangladesh Overseas Employment & Services Ltd. (BOESL)

Bangladesh Overseas Employment & Services Ltd. (BOESL)

To earn the much needed foreign exchange by way of exporting professional, skilled & un-skilled manpower the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh established Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL) in 1984. This is the only Company created by the Government to operate in healthy competition with about 600 private recruiting agencies in the country in this sector. The main purpose of creating this Company is to provide honest, efficient and quick services to the valued foreign employers in the matter of deployment of manpower development.List of the members of the Board of Directors of BOESL

1.      Secretary, Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare & Overseas Employment: Chairman
2.      Director General. Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training : Director
3.      Joint Sec., Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare & Overseas Employment : Director
4.      Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs : Director
5.      Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs : Director
6.      Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance : Director
7.      Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation & Tourism : Director 

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