Govt to send abroad 1,000 workers from each upazila a year

State minister for expatriates welfare and overseas employment Imran Ahmad on Tuesday told parliament that the government has worked out a plan to send 1,000 workers abroad from each backward upazila, reports UNB.

Replying to a question by treasury bench member M Abdul Latif (Chattogram-11), he said, "The government has planned to send 1,000 workers abroad every year from each upazila of backward districts to inspire them to migrate."

The state minister also said Bangladesh is now sending workers to 168 countries across the world and the government has continued its efforts to explore new labour markets.

Imran said the government has already taken various steps to increase remittance by expanding the labour markets.

As part of the steps, he said, the government is trying to send huge workers to the UAE and Malaysia.

Imran said, research works have been conducted on 53 labour markets for assessing the prospect of manpower export.

Responding to a question from Awami League MP Anwarul Abedin Khan, state minister for labour and employment Begum Munnujan Sufian said the government has introduced a database on expatriate workers while steps are also being taken to prepare a database on the returnees.

She said no district quota system is being followed in sending manpower to different countries and people of all districts have the scope to go abroad with jobs.

Munnujan said the government is working to construct 91 more technical training centres across the country to produce more efficient, productive and prospective overseas workers. "The government is focusing on enhancing the skills of the workers who want to go abroad seeking jobs."

Replying to another question by treasury bench member Nurunnabi Chowdhury (Bhola-3), Imran Ahmad said Bangladesh sent a total of 59,037 workers to different countries in January, 2019 alone.

He said a total of 5,992,132 workers went abroad under the Awami League-led government from 2009 to January 2019.

Besides, he said, 76,179 workers were sent to different destinations around the world, including Jordan and South Korea, through government recruiting agency Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL) during the same period.