Redesigning manpower export policy

The role migrant workers' remittance plays in the overall economy of Bangladesh cannot be overstated. Especially, it increases aggregate demand as well as stimulates non-farm activities in the rural economy. But of late, depressing developments on Bangladesh's overseas labour market are being reported. A recent report from Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit (RMMRU) says that between January and November of 2024, 0.9 million migrant workers joined overseas jobs.  But that number is 30.8 per cent fewer than that of the previous year (2023) at 1.3 million, RMMRU adds. The cause of this fall in the foreign-bound migrant workers last year compared to 2023 is the closure of the labour markets for Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia, the Maldives, Oman and the UAE.

While presenting RMMRU findings recently, its head for instance, attributed this shrinkage of the country's overseas labour market to 'systemic corruption and irregularities' in the migrant workers' recruitment process. In this connection, the closure of the Malaysian market in May2004, three and a half years after its reopening in 2021, is a case in point. Embezzlement of an enormous sum of money by a nexus of Bangladeshi and Malaysian fraudsters, reportedly, led to that disastrous consequence. Then the use of fake documents halted migration to Italy and Serbia. Add to this the political instability due to student-mass uprising (of July-August last year) which negatively impacted the workers' overseas migration during the second half of 2024.

These apparently are the issues responsible for last year's record fall in the number of overseas-bound migrant workers. But when it comes to the question of persistent decline in the demand for Bangladeshi migrant labourers in the major overseas markets such as KSA, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Malaysia, etc., it obviously relates to their level of skills. In fact, the major exporters of skilled manpower in those job markets include Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, India, etc., who are replacing unskilled and semi-skilled labour in those markets supplied by Bangladesh. In this context, a report carried by this paper says that more than 54 per cent of the workers sent abroad from Bangladesh last year were unskilled.

The proportions of skilled, semi-skilled and professionals, on the other hand, were over 23 per cent, close to 18 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively. Clearly, the overwhelming proportion of last year's foreign-bound workers was unskilled. Also, the proportion of unskilled migrant workers last year was higher than that of 2023 by 4.0 percentage points. Against this backdrop, it is time the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) took a long, hard look at the shrinking overseas market for Bangladeshi manpower and find ways to improve the situation. First, the authorities need to address the prevailing corruption that ultimately tells upon Bangladesh's reputation as an exporter of manpower abroad. Since the demand for skilled labour is rising in the traditional overseas markets, the policy of manpower export is required to be set in line with the market trend. Increasing the proportions of foreign-bound skilled workers and professionals is an answer. On this score, the BMET is learnt to have categorised mechanics, welders, electricians, plumbers, garment workers, certified care givers, etc as skilled. According to this classification, semi-skilled workers include farmers, gardeners, shop assistants, etc., while cleaners, domestic helps, menial workers, among others, have been categorised as unskilled labourers. The professionals, according to this definition, are the doctors, engineers, teachers, accountants, computer operators, pharmacists, nurses, etc. So the strategy should be to stress vocational education to create skilled workers as well as redesign the country's education curricula in order to generate a more productive workforce.