Recession-hit returnees' rehabilitation a challenge

The Bangladesh Bank governor yesterday said rehabilitation of the recession-hurt migrant workers poses to be a challenge as a bulk of the inward remittance is being used in unproductive sectors.
“Recession has multidimensional facets. In our country, rehabilitation of the migrant workers, who are returning home after losing their jobs because of the recession, will be a challenge,” said Salehduddin Ahmed.
He was speaking at a programme on the "Institutional Support for Productive Utilisation of Migrant Workers' Remittances", organised by the INAFI Bangladesh Remittance Project at Brac Centre Inn, Dhaka.
“It is important to channel remittance earnings into productive sectors and deviate from the present trends in only purchasing property,” he said. “Employment generation activities are needed to help those who suffer from fund constraints."
The central bank chief's statement came at a time when migrant workers are returning home almost everyday, as recession bites the economies of the host countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Singapore.
In the last three months to March 2009, about 22,000 migrant workers came back home, on strict enforcement of immigration rules and layoffs or long vacations by the employers.
In March, some 9,127 migrant workers came back home, up from 8,022 a month earlier. The outflow of migrant workers with jobs has also declined.
“We call migrant workers our unnoticed heroes. We must recognise that they are one of the most important contributors to our economy,” the governor said. The foreign exchange reserve reached the highest position at $6.35 billion due to remittance inflows.
Remittance inflows show signs of a slowdown, even though $881 million was remitted in March.
In the July-March period of the current fiscal year, remittance inflow grew by 24 percent to $7029.51 million from $5649.23 million a year ago.
Ahmed said the time has come to train migrant workers to enable them obtain better jobs and earn more money.
“But we need to utilise the money in productive sectors so that they get sustainable living conditions upon return,” he said. He recommends investing remittances in small and medium enterprises.
The BB governor also called on banks to explore ways to encourage their small clients to invest in productive sectors.
“It is time to recognise some of the small remitters. Give recognition to people who send money via formal channels,” he said.
Ahmed also suggested NGOs develop a network with the NGOs in other countries in a bid to mitigate sufferings of the migrant workers in host countries.