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That around one hundred thousand foreigners overstay their visas in Bangladesh, as reported recently in a local daily, does look like a gross negligence on the part of the country's immigration and other relevant agencies. But the reality is that a situation like this has long been prevalent in the country.
Quite understandably, the government loses a huge amount of revenue in the form of income tax from foreign nationals illegally staying and working here, many of whom had entered the country with business, work, tourist and on-arrival visas. The report adds that foreign nationals staying with expired visas are from India, China, the Philippines, and a number of African countries.
Apart from overstaying visas, the issue of foreigners engaged in unauthorised jobs with or without valid visas has remained unaddressed, as of now. Steps reportedly taken by government agencies to check illegal employment of and tax evasion by foreign nationals and to prepare a database of them appear to have fallen flat.
Although there is no official statistics on the number of foreign nationals working in Bangladesh, different NGOs have estimated that the number might be around half a million and that more than $5.0 billion flows out of the country annually as remittance. According to private sector sources, a good number of foreign professionals are engaged in Bangladesh's apparel, textile, telecommunication, information technology, poultry and poultry feed sectors, a large number of whom are working without permission. According to a study conducted some time ago by the Centre of Excellence for Bangladesh Apparel Industry titled 'Employment of Expatriates and its Alternatives in the RMG Sector of Bangladesh' in collaboration with the Faculty of Business Studies of Dhaka University, around five hundred thousand foreigners are working in Bangladesh and only one-fifth of them are registered with the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority, Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority and the NGO Affairs Bureau.
Bangladesh needs skilled workers in certain sectors including garment and high-tech manufacturing. But a large majority of the foreign workers including mid-level supervisors and managers get employed without legal documents. Employment without legal documents is grossly irregular and a punishable offence. The concerned authorities, including the immigration department, haven't done anything worthy to ensure that only eligible persons get employed. Allegedly, taking advantage of the lax or no vigilance, a large number of unauthorised people are currently engaged in private hospitals, even elementary schools. Not all of them overstay, they go back and enter with fresh visas to continue with what they were doing. Their employers, for the most part, are the main facilitators in their illegal activities. When unauthorised persons get employed by local businesses and business houses, they take their earnings through unofficial channels---that too in foreign currency. Taxes liable to be paid are thus evaded.
Reportedly, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) is set to launch a drive to find out unauthorised foreigners working in local business entities. The NBR suspects that a significant amount on account of income tax is being evaded for years by foreigners working illegally in the country. A taskforce has reportedly been formed to carry out inspection on some randomly selected factories or business premises in the capital in order to collect details of foreign employees and their legal and tax payment status. Besides bringing to book tax evading foreigners, the drive also aims at penalising the employers for recruiting unauthorised foreigners. According to the income tax law, an employer will face a penalty as much as 50 per cent of his or her total payable tax or half a million taka for employing even a single foreign national without work permit from the competent authorities. The NBR is also competent to scrap tax benefits including tax holiday facility for the export-oriented companies, if found guilty of conniving with the foreign workers in tax evasion.
It is clear enough that the NBR is concerned more about the taxes it is losing. But when it comes to unauthorised employment not only in typical business entities but also in a host of other areas, including healthcare services and educational institutions, the onus is obviously on the immigration authorities and relevant law enforcers to see to it that no foreigner is employed without any valid work permit.
The need for a data base of foreigners legally working in the country is thus crucial. This, on the one hand, will facilitate the NBR to remain apprised of their tax payment status, and on the other, ensure their legal stay in the country. It appears that no such database exists. Records of work permit are of course available with the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), but these are perhaps not meant for policing.
The relevant agencies should team up in an effective way to gather required information on foreigners working in the country as well as those employed in violation of law. There is more to the issue concerning grave financial frauds and in many cases these are orchestrated by foreigners legally or illegally living in the country with serious criminal track records, in collaboration with their local aides. These acts range from making counterfeit currency notes, manipulating ATM money withdrawal system to cheating of all conceivable methods and techniques. A good number of such elements might be hiding under cover of employment.
As for legal employment, isn't it necessary that the authorities checked whether a foreigner sponsored/employed by a local company is absolutely necessary for the job s/he holds? If the relevant authorities are alert, chances are high that many work permit applications will fail to meet the right criteria.