The government has adopted a plan to send 10 million skilled workers overseas over the next five years as part of its strategy to expand overseas employment and strengthen Bangladesh’s foreign labour markets, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Ariful Haque Chowdhury told Parliament on Thursday.
Replying to a question from Naogaon-5 MP Md Zahidul Islam Dhalu during the 22nd sitting of the second and first budget session of the 13th Parliament, the minister said the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment has formulated an action plan to implement the government’s election manifesto by producing skilled workers for overseas jobs and addressing language barriers faced by migrant workers.
He said the ministry currently provides skills development training through 110 training institutions under its supervision, including 104 Technical Training Centres (TTCs) and six Institutes of Marine Technology. The institutions offer 55 short- and long-term employment-oriented trades and courses designed to prepare workers for overseas labour markets.
Responding to another question from Barishal-3 MP Dr Zainul Abedin, the minister said the government is working to ensure safe, regular and orderly migration, reduce migration costs and curb fraud by brokers and middlemen.
To make the migration process more transparent, accountable and efficient, the government has launched the Overseas Employment Platform (OEP), a digital system that facilitates trainee enrolment at training centres, monitoring and certification, authentication of demand letters and visas by labour welfare wings at Bangladesh missions abroad, issuance of overseas travel clearances, and other migration-related services.
The minister said the platform has significantly reduced the influence of middlemen at various stages of the migration process and is expected to further improve transparency and accountability in overseas employment management.
He also said the government has introduced the Overseas Employment and Migrants (Recruiting Agent Licence, Sub-Agent Registration and Code of Conduct) Rules, 2025 to bring brokers and sub-agents under a legal framework.
In addition, district-level and upazila-level Migration Coordination Committees have been formed across the country to oversee and implement migration-related activities at the local level, he added.