Over half a million Bangladeshis, a fifth of them women, went overseas for work this year, a Dhaka University-based migration study organisation said yesterday, adding that expats sent home $14.04 billion in remittances this year.
The Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) said 538,667 Bangladeshi nationals migrated for work between January 1 and December 22 this year.
RMMRU founding chairperson, political science professor Tasneem Siddiqui, said manpower exports had grown by 35% since 2013, but called the growth of remittance earnings “unsatisfactory.”
“The reason for the [remittance] crisis is the devaluation of the country’s currency. This unsatisfactory exchange rate decreases the remittance rate and discourages the transfer of remittances via legal channels,” she said.
Tasneem announced the figures while presenting an annual report on migration at the National Press Club in the capital.
The performance of Probashi Kallyan Bank (PKB) should be examined, she said. The PKB gave loans to a mere 1% of migrant labourers who went abroad in 2015.
She described the parliamentary standing committee on the Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry decision to transfer an additional Tk300 crore from the Wage Earners’ Welfare Board to top up the PKB’s capital “unethical.”
The report said Saudi Arabia was the biggest source of remittances this year at 21.49%.
After Saudi Arabia, the biggest sources of remittances were the United Arab Emirates at 18.14%, the United States at 16.11%, Malaysia at 9.1%, Oman at 6% and Kuwait at 6.8%, the report said.
“The number of female migrants is increasing, which is a good sign. Some 91,858 female workers went abroad as of November this year, more than 19% of the total. The number of female migrants has risen 18% since 2013,” Tasneem said.
A lack of concern for the protection of female migrants is a problem, she said.
Oman received the highest number of migrants - some 125,492 people - accounting for 23% of the total manpower exports this year.
Some 120,579 Bangladeshis migrated to Qatar, 55,428 to Saudi Arabia, the highest number ever sent to that country in a single year, and another 28,626 moved to Malaysia, the highest number going to that country in the last seven years, according to the report.
On the rise of human trafficking and migrant smuggling, Tasneem said: “The government response to the boat people crisis lacks commitment to stamping out migrant smuggling and human trafficking.”
There are new reports out that many Bangladeshis are illegally travelling to Libya via Sudan. She said illegal migration would continue unless the government cracks down on trafficking networks.
Tasneem said: “The government should initiate talks with Malaysia to resist their decision to deport ‘illegal’ migrants starting in January 2016.”
The Malaysian government deems illegal even those migrants who land in the country with valid work visas but are later forced to work somewhere other than the site specified in their paperwork because their recruiters failed to secure their jobs, she said.
“Many migrants travelled to Malaysia by sea. Bangladesh should help them after raising the issue with Malaysia,” she said.
