Manpower exports grew nearly 30 per cent to 71,441 individuals in July from the previous month, despite widespread anti-discrimination unrest in the country. But this is the second lowest in last 33 months as per the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET).
The full impact of the unrest however may be evident in the next two months; because the migration process usually takes more than two months to reflect in the figure. Bangladesh sent 55,045 workers abroad in June this year.
Malaysia later banned foreign workers from entering the country; which is still in force pulling down exports by 43 percent compared to July last year.
Ali Haider Chowdhury, general secretary of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), said that the processing of those who went in July was done in May-June period or even earlier.
How the process was done in last month will reflect in the current month or next month. So it cannot be said now that the export flow will continue unimpaired. Ali Haider also said, Saudi Arabia is still our biggest market. So in addition to maintaining traditional markets, efforts should be made to open more markets.
Saudi Arabia hired 47,867 workers from Bangladesh in July; which is the highest as a single country destination. Recruitment by United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore, Qatar and Kuwait follow. Most workers are going to Saudi Arabia to work in construction industry followed by service sector or domestic work.
In early May this year, the number of labor force exports to Saudi Arabia was only 30 thousand impacted by not providing clearance for two weeks against single visa holders who were not attested by Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh.
In addition to traditional labor market in the Middle East, some European countries are constantly hiring workers from Bangladesh, though few in number. Among them, 392 people went to Croatia last month, 142 went to Cyprus, 137 went to Portugal, 258 went to Romania, 131 went to Serbia and 251 went to United Kingdom.
Labor exporters have emphasized sending skilled manpower to Europe. Shamim Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, former general secretary of BAIRA, said demand for construction workers in Saudi Arabia is good at the moment.
"The government needs to take action against fraud and continue to provide incentives against remittance. He said they expect manpower export to cross 11 lakh this year.
"But what is more important is that, Bangladeshi workers earn less than their counterparts from other countries and the main reason is lack of skills. To enhance skills and increase remittance inflow, we must use all our training facilities at full capacity," he said.
About expanding export destinations, he said they are slowly opening new markets. It needs time to achieve trust; he said adding migration to European countries will increase more in the future.
"Gambia and Portugal have shown interest, but they want workers who can speak good English. Besides, some countries do not have missions in Bangladesh; we have to process visas in a third country. Infrastructure development in this regard is essential to make export in these countries unimpaired," he added.
