Amid lax management in the overseas sector, recruiting agencies and manpower brokers smuggle about Tk 8,000 crore every year in the form of hundi to buy visas or job demands for Bangladeshi workers.
Such illegal transactions spawn enormous malpractices forcing a large part of low-skilled workers into penury. But the government measures fail miserably in negotiating with labourer receiving countries to check frauds.
In the '80s, the employers used to bear the expenditure to hire workers from the country. But later a syndicate of visa traders enticed the employers to take cheaply paid workers from them in exchange of commission, creating dozens of ways to exploit the workers.
The issues have surfaced following recent turmoil in the Middle East and Malaysia where Bangladeshi workers were unpaid, underpaid, abused and deported or were forced to return home.
The key villain behind the workers' woes is a syndicate of local and international brokers, who jointly exploit the nation's main remittance earners. Bangladesh earned around Tk 55,000-crore remittance in 2007-08 fiscal year from around 60 lakh expatriates.
A section of middlemen buy visas or job demands from the employers, even against bribe, and sell those to urban brokers or recruiting agencies making visa cost very high, industry insiders say.
"Another section is spread in the rural areas and woos simple jobseekers by making false promises of high salary and other facilities," said a leader of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira).
Manpower businesses say over 50 percent of the money the workers spend to get overseas jobs is smuggled out of the country to pay the visa traders in the form of hundi.
"More or less eight lakh Bangladeshi workers go abroad every year. Considering the average price of each visa Tk 1 lakh, the agencies or brokers smuggle estimated Tk 8,000 crore to buy visas," says a recruiting agent.
According to a former official of Bangladesh embassy in Kuwait, the low-skilled workers, who each pay around Tk 2 lakh to get a job in the Middle Eastern countries, get monthly salaries equivalent to Tk 5,000-Tk 8,000.
This category of workers comprise around 80 percent of Bangladeshi workforce who fail to recover the money they spent in two to three years, he said.
Admitting the influence of middlemen, Baira President Ghulam Mustafa said, "We must eliminate these middlemen. But it's unfortunate that our jobseekers don't come to the recruiting agencies. Rather, they go to the brokers, who are mostly touts."
Mustafa suggests bringing these middlemen under legal framework and allowing recruiting agencies to send a sum of foreign currency for marketing purpose abroad.
A Taskforce on Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment that recently submitted to the government a set of recommendations after over six-month research suggests that the government allow agencies to take a specified amount of foreign currency.
"The amount of foreign currency may be on the basis of an agency's previous year's performance," Lt Col Shammi Firoz, chairman of the Taskforce, told The Daily Star.
The Taskforce also suggests that the recruiting agencies authorise the middlemen at both ends. "Once licensed, the visa traders abroad will give detailed information to the Bangladesh missions so that they can be caught for any wrongdoings."
Similarly, the recruiting agencies can also have some registered brokers so that they can be held accountable, he said. Names of the brokers should be made available at union levels so that aspiring jobseekers can know them.
Expatriates' Welfare Secretary Abdul Matin Chowdhury, however, said the government has not taken any decision on the matter and is discussing it with the agencies concerned.
Moreover, there are numerous instances that more workers were hired than actual requirement of a foreign company. Even they are hired against fake companies only to make money out of visa trading leaving the workers in the foreign land unemployed or employed like slaves.
Such cases have been found mostly in Malaysia where all the job demands are supposed to be attested by the Bangladesh High Commission.
"But unfortunately, the attestations were not made properly after thorough inspection of the employing factories," said Ghulam Mustafa, adding: "I had requested the government to recruit more officials in Malaysia for physical inspection. But the plea went unheeded."
Abdul Alim, a recruiting agent, said post migration management is very poor in case of Bangladesh. "When one labourer counsellor in Malaysia fails to manage 4 lakh Bangladeshi workers, how can only two counsellors in Saudi Arabia manage 17 lakh workers?" he asked.
The number of welfare officials and lawyers should be increased in the countries where more Bangladeshis are working, he said, adding that these officials should be very efficient and knowledgeable about the language, culture and laws of the labourer receiving countries.
"These officials have to protect rights of the workers as well as punish those for any wrongdoings abroad. Thus malpractices will automatically come down," Abdul Alim said.
Lt Col Firoz said they recommended appointing more number of welfare officials in proportion to the number of the workers living in different countries.
An official of the expatriates' welfare ministry, however, said the government right now does not have any plan to expand manpower in the Bangladesh missions or consular services.
On the other hand, when low-skilled workers are subject to more abuse and cheating, the government does not have any long-term vision to train up them or launch a research wing to explore new opportunities.
The Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) in its 38 technical training centres train up 49,000 youths every year. But only 27 percent of them can avail overseas jobs.
BMET Director General Abdul Malek, however, said two high-powered committees have recently submitted two reports on building skill in more demanding jobs, and gradually bringing down the number of unskilled workers abroad.
"The government is also trying to open a market research wing," he added.