The government has decided in principle to set workers’ migration cost to an amount not exceeding their two-month wages instead of the high amount charged so far by private recruiting agencies.
The agencies, many of whom cheated innocent migrant workers, would not also be able to send overseas job seekers directly. They have to send only those who are on the government database and selected by a government committee.
“We have decided in principle that the migration cost will not exceed two months’ wages of a migrant worker,” expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment Joint Secretary Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal told the Dhaka Tribune on Tuesday.
He said an overseas job seeker can go abroad by taking loan of an amount of his/her two months’ wages from the Probashi Kallyan Bank.
Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) Secretary General Ali Haidar Chowdhury appreciated the decision.
Private recruiting agencies allegedly charged Tk200,000-300,000 to send a worker to Middle East countries, Malaysia and the UAE, officials of Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) said.
Earlier, the government had fixed Tk38,000 as the migration cost for a Libya-bound worker and Tk84,000 for workers going to Malaysia and Middle East countries, including the UAE .
But the private recruiting agencies did not follow the government’s decision, a BMET official said.
Asked how they will implement the latest decision, Joint Secretary Abu Hena said: “We will launch a campaign for the awareness of the job seekers.”
BMET Director General Begum Shamsun Nahar told the Dhaka Tribune on Tuesday: “We will start online registration from June 20 across the country so that interested overseas job seekers can register their names.”
She said those who are already registered need not register again.
She said some might claim that they did not register their names because they were not interested to go to Malaysia to work in plantation sector.
Meanwhile, the BMET has formed a six-member committee headed by its director for immigration to scrutinise the private recruiting agencies’ demands submitted in a letter.
The committee will make a guideline and select workers from the database and supply to the recruiting agencies for training and send them abroad for jobs.
