The foreign labour market for Bangladeshi workers is shrinking alarmingly and remittance has dropped significantly over the last few months due to the closure of several large labour markets and growing dependence on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

The government is still trying to resume sending workers to Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and searching for new labour markets but all these efforts are yet to be successful.

Sources say that labour migration has been declining for the last four years due to economic recession in the traditional destinations and the inability to create new labour markets.

The situation has worsened in the last 19 months due to the global coronavirus pandemic. Remittance inflow has already started to fall and it may decrease further in the future, said experts.

The migration sector insiders observed that the ministries concerned could play a more active role in meeting the challenges caused by the pandemic.

“Migration is a major source of foreign exchange earnings. But it is not being given due importance. Initiatives should have been taken earlier to increase the deployment of workers during the pandemic,” said Shamim Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, former secretary-general of BAIRA.

“It is not only the efforts of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment. All the concerned ministries needed to form a coordination cell,” he added.

According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), around 13.3 million Bangladeshis have migrated to different countries for work since 1975. Among them, 33 per cent went to the KSA alone.

Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) and Recruiting Agency Unity Council say Saudi Arabia is the single largest labour market for Bangladeshis and this market has been narrowing for the last two years due to various obstacles.

As per the information provided by BMET, a record number of 1 million workers went abroad in 2017 while the number dropped to 734,000 in 2018. Only 7 lakh workers migrated in 2019.

The labour migration sector experienced a shockwave due to the global coronavirus pandemic last year as only 217,669 workers went abroad in 2020. And some 275,791 workers were sent abroad in the first eight months of this year. Of them, 74 per cent went to Saudi Arabia last year and 78 per cent this year.

Among the major labour markets, Malaysia has been closed for three years. It was shut down in September 2018 due to allegations of corruption. After that, the representatives of the two countries met several times but could not resolve the issue.

The UAE, the second-largest labour market for Bangladeshi workers, has been closed since September 2012. Although it was announced to be reopened last year, the fresh efforts did not gain much momentum amid the pandemic.

Only 1,082 workers went to the UAE last year while the number is 4,690 this year (before the beginning of PCR lab operation at Dhaka airport) despite improvement in the coronavirus situation.

The government planned last year to explore new labour markets and send workers to African countries like Tanzania, Gambia, Sudan, and Uganda and European countries such as Poland, Portugal, Romania, Croatia and Moldova but couldn’t make much progress in this regard.

Consequently, the flow of remittances into the country has collapsed. Bangladesh Bank (BB) data shows that the flow of inward remittances dropped by nearly 20 per cent to $7.05 billion during the July-October period of the current FY 2021-22 from $8.81 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.

Bangladesh in the last several months has experienced a downtrend in remittance earning. The country counted $ 1.64 billion as remittances in October this year, down from $1.72 billion in September, $1.81 billion in August, $1.87 billion in July, $1.94 billion in June and $2.17 billion in May.

Asked about the situation, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Secretary Dr Ahmed Munirus Saleheen said, “Emphasis is being laid on reopening closed labour markets. Negotiations are underway to resume sending workers to Malaysia. The minister has already visited the UAE in this regard.”

“Our workers are now going to different countries of Eastern Europe for the first time. If the coronavirus situation improves, hopefully, the labour market will return to normalcy,” he added.