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The number of Bangladeshi outbound migrant workers has been on the rise in recent years amidst inadequate budgetary and other technical support from the government for the key remittance earning sector.
The Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) said this in its year-end analysis, which was shared on Wednesday at an event at the National Press Club.
Acting Chairperson of RMMRU Tasneem Siddiqui, who is also a professor of Dhaka University, shared the analysis while renowned rights activist Shahidul Alam, among others, spoke on the occasion.
Citing government data, the RMMRU analysis said the number of outbound migrant workers saw a 12 per cent rise to 1.13 million in 2025 over that of 1.01 million in 2024.
Of the total migrants, 20 to 22 per cent would be skilled workers and the remaining 70 to 74 per cent might be semi or low-skilled workers, according to previous analysis of RMMRU.
With the rising trend, Bangladesh received a record US$ 32.82 billion worth of remittances in 2025, which was about 22 per cent higher than that of last year.
The highest remittance came from Saudi Arabia, according to the official data.
However, it is still not possible to collect data on how many people have returned to the country after completing work contracts each year.
"Since it is not possible to determine the number of returning migrants, it is hardly possible to calculate how many Bangladeshi workers are currently staying abroad," Ms. Siddiqui said.
In 2025, a total of 62,317 female workers went abroad for work, which accounted for about 5.5 per cent of the total migrants.
In 2016, about 16 per cent of the total outbound migrant workers from Bangladesh were female workers, according to the analysis.
According to Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) data, Bangladeshi workers migrated to 141 countries last year.
However, around 90 per cent of them migrated to five countries alone.
On the other hand, only 1.0 worker migrated to 13 countries each, while 2.0 to 10 workers migrated to each of 34 countries. As much as 67 per cent or 7, 54,369 workers migrated to Saudi Arabia.
"It is not appropriate to identify the countries where less than 100 workers go as countries of migration," she added.
The highest migration occurred from Dhaka division and the lowest from Rangpur division, according to the analysis.
For the first time, Bangladeshi workers staying abroad are set to get the opportunity to exercise their voting rights in the national election, scheduled for February 12, which is a historic step with regard to implementation of migrants' voting rights.
As of December 31, 2025, a total of 1,18,344 Bangladeshi migrants registered to participate in postal voting.
The sector experts continue to suggest increasing the budget for the migration sector at least to 1.0 per cent from the existing 0.08.
However the government remains the opposite.
In the proposed budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, Tk 8.55 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment as against Tk 11.40 billion in 2024 fiscal year.
The RMMRU analysis also found the presence of a syndicate of 17 recruiting agencies in the Kuwaiti labor market.
In the processing of Kuwaiti working visas, Bangladeshi workers are being charged an additional Tk 17,000-35,000 for various reasons.
Whereas the government-fixed fee for all those sectors is only Tk 6,270, said the report
From January 1 to October 3, 2025, some 15,476 Bangladeshi migrants reached the coast of Italy by sea. The number is the highest among the migrants from other countries arriving in Italy this year. This number is almost double that of last year.
The number of recruiting agencies has marked an alarming rise to 2646 in Bangladesh compared to that of 192 in India and 464 in Pakistan.
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