Overseas employment slumps, must be revived

Bangladesh has long been exporting its workforce and remittance is seen as one of the main sources of foreign currency. But it is time to radically change and update this concept. Last year migrant workers set records of sending remittance, the highest in the country’s history. Manpower exports have been declining over the past two years. There has been a crisis in this sector for long. At the same time, high income and declining manpower export - both are realities. Most importantly, the foreign labour market imports workers as per need. It does not certainly depend on the workforce exports policy of any foreign government.

There are some important aspects that the government has to take into consideration immediately. First of all, it has to presume that the world labour market will no longer accept unskilled or semi-skilled workers. The demand for such workers is going down fast. Therefore, there is no alternative to renovating the existing education system to generate employment abroad as well as to use the skilled workers in building the nation.

Secondly, the government has to take initiative to reduce dependence on recruiting agencies for exporting workforce. There is a misconception among people that these agencies play a vital role to create labour markets abroad. But the reality is far different. More than 80 per cent of the workers collected their working visas on their own. But the law says, the workers must go through recruiting agencies. The government, yet, could not ensure accountability of these agencies which is one of the requisites of good governance.

Third, agents or brokers play a major role in the export of manpower. At the same time, people are being deceived by them the most. At the first meeting of the National Steering Committee on migration on 26 August 2019, prime minister Sheikh Hasina warned that people should not be 'cheated' by 'agents’. She called for on a more robust monitoring system. However, no major changes are seen yet.

The data from a recent survey is quite worrying. According to the survey, despite spending Tk27 billion every year, 19 per cent people fail to go abroad as they are cheated by the brokers. Another 34 percent are harassed while staying abroad. Fifth, the procedure of implementing of the National Skills Policy passed in 2011 and National Skills Development Authority passed in the Parliament in 2018 is proceeding at a slow pace;.
To change the sloppy picture of the sector, the authorities have to change the way this sector has been operating. We will lag behind in the global labour market if we turn a blind eye now. We should keep the stagnation of two of the three largest labour markets in mind and preparations must be made in advance to handle the 'impending fall'.

We need to equip our workforce with skills to meet the demands and changes of manpower importing countries. Experts have been pushing for a broader action plan to revive the sector, keeping in mind that the conventional labour markets are changing and employment opportunities are narrowed. Reviewing the public comments of the government policy makers, it is clear that they are well aware of the problems, crises and prospects of the sector. Their measures action, however, is nothing but eyewash. This has to be stopped.