Bangladeshi workers in Libya are making around Tk100,000 a month as earning potential has increased in the war-ravaged country.
“Currently, the minimum wage is 500 dinars and official working hours are six to seven,” an official of the foreign ministry told the Dhaka Tribune. (One Libyan dinar is equivalent to approximately Tk60)
They work elsewhere after finishing their formal jobs and earn at least 30 dinar a day, said the official seeking anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
“Altogether they earn over 1,500 dinars a month which is over Tk90,000,” he added.
Labour Attaché of Bangladeshi embassy in Libya Mohammad Ahsan Kibria Siddiqui told the Dhaka Tribune that Tripoli was facing an acute worker shortage.
“The wage rate has increased because of this,” he said.
About 40,000 Bangladeshis are now working in different sectors including construction, cleaning, catering and oil fields and about 10,000 are professional or technical workers.
The high earning professionals include doctors, engineers, nurses, executives or self-employed, Ahsan said. Most of the Bangladeshis in Libya are located in Tripoli, Benghazi and Sava areas.
During the fall of Gaddafi regime in 2011, over 40,000 Bangladeshis returned home but from November 2011 to June last year, about 12,000 entered Tripoli legally while about 30,000 entered illegally, he said.
“When law enforcement agencies arrest them, the Bangladesh mission takes prompt steps to release them. It handles 300 to 350 such cases every month.”
The prospect for sending manpower to Libya is bright and a delegation from the North African country visited Bangladesh recently.
They had meetings with officials of expatriate welfare and overseas employment along with foreign ministries and discussed potential recruitment for the country, Ahsan said.