The Challenges and Prospects of Non-resident Bangladeshi Workers

FOREIGN remittance is the second-largest economic contributor to the national GDP of Bangladesh. Yet expatriate workers are treated inappropriately both by their native and employed countries. 

Currently, Bangladesh has about eight million migrant workers, mostly in the countries located in the Arabian Peninsula, which remit about USD 15 billion per annum on average and make indispensable contributions to the economy. 

According to government data, a total of 13,080,501 Bangladeshis has gone abroad since 1976 in search of a life. Of them, the highest number, 4,183,585, went to Saudi Arabia, followed by 2,372,398 to United Arab Emirates; 1,518,268 to Oman; and 1,057,177 to Malaysia. The rest of the migrants went to different other countries. 

Catastrophically, Saudi Arabia was the highest remittance sending country in the 2019-2020 fiscal year but the highest number of rapes, domestic violence cases and deaths victimising the workers are registered in Saudi Arabia so far. It is also similar to other Gulf nations. Nevertheless, every expatriate worker has the reasons that forced them to leave their native country to economically support themselves and their family. 

Whilst the world is facing an economic recession, Bangladesh is still enjoying the GDP growth. thanks to the expatriate workers. In October this year, more than USD 2.11 billion was sent to the country as a remittance. In November this number dropped to around USD 2.08 billion. Foreign remittance is breaking previous records. In the first five months of 2020-21 fiscal year (July-November), remittance went up by 41.32 per cent. Another record is that this month the total remittance has crossed USD 10 billion. In these five months, the remittance arriving in the country totalled around USD 10.90 billion. A World Bank report said that remittance would decrease globally due to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak, but it would increase in Bangladesh. 

In the current fiscal year, around USD 20 billion may come in remittance despite the catastrophe of the COVID-19. Bangladesh will rank 8th in receiving remittance. According to the estimates of the Asian Development Bank, the flow of remittances to South Asian countries is likely to fall by 26 per cent whereas Bangladesh is leading the board. 

Bangladesh is one of the fastest-growing economies but lacks in its strategies to utilise the resources and treat the resource-people properly. On the other side of the coin, it is alarming too. Bangladeshi migrant workers face traumatic incidents in oversea countries. Expatriate workers face inhumane sufferings. Women workers are raped and tortured by their employers while working abroad, specifically in the Gulf nations. On average, every day more than ten dead bodies of migrant workers arrive at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. 

Inhumane treatment in these Gulf countries is well known to the globe. Lack of robust foreign policies, strategies, inefficient negotiation skills and poor bureaucracy are responsible for not ensuring justice for the migrant workers. Bangladeshi migrant workers often accuse the administration of Bangladesh of not providing them with adequate and preventive measures to protect its remittance warriors. 

The urban-rural population ratio is 30:70 in Bangladesh. Hence, people in the rural area is the easy target of human traffickers. Rural population is trapped into the net of the traffickers as they are desperate to earn money and support their family. Additionally, people living in the rural area are any basic facilities. It ignites people to go abroad with a dream to have a better life.

As a result, people have to go through the dreadful way which makes the consequence even worse. Migrant workers try hard to reach to foreign soil by legal or illegal way either for the survival of themselves or their families. But every way certainly has the fear of a miserable life or even death. 

On the other hand, it was reported that Bangladesh is the third remittance senders to India while accommodating almost half-million illegal Indian migrant workers. According to Transparency International Bangladesh, maximum numbers of foreign workers work in Bangladesh in the apparel sector of the country. Besides, a lot of foreigners serve in various development projects, power plants, international agencies, NGOs, multinational companies, hospitals, hotels and restaurants. Many of them are taking away money illegally, which is estimated to be a whopping BDT 264 billion per year, thereby causing an annual tax revenue leakage of BDT 120 billion. 

Whereas, Bangladeshi expatriate workers or even aspirants always have to go through terrific humiliation, unfairness and traumatic situation. Still, they do not get enough support from the policymakers and its executors. So, all stakeholders have to take their share of responsibility to give them the right sense of direction and the government should create adequate policies and execute them to make the lives of our migrant workers better. 

On top of that, more than 50 per cent of the population is young in Bangladesh. The future driver of opportunities is the young population. The unskilled workforce is also responsible for not getting employment opportunities in Bangladesh and also for not getting a skilled job aboard. This is holding the youth back from contributing substantially to the economy. 

It is high time we all should concentrate on increasing human development first. It is essential to provide all the facilities to the expatriate workers conveniently and provide them with all the legal supports to get justice. After all, it is these knights who are always there to contribute the most to our economy even during the COVID-19 pandemic.