Unhappy Baira stops manpower export

Protesting the government's role in recruitment in foreign job markets, Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira) has decided to suspend its manpower export activities for an indefinite period from today.
Baira President M Shahjalal Mazumder announced the decision at a press conference in the capital yesterday, months after a government move to send workers abroad under state arrangements.
He alleged that the government has made the private sector “inactive” in the name of sending people abroad through a government-to-government process.
“Due to the process, the expansion of manpower sector has reached an impasse at a time when we have finalised, after discussions with different countries, the process of sending workers abroad,” said Mazumder.
The Baira had welcomed the government move, he added, but the government has failed to send workers to Malaysia even almost six months after starting the process.
“We have been working in the manpower sector for a long time,” the Baira president noted. “But the government has left us out of the recruitment process. That is why we are losing our hold on the labour market.”
Talking to journalists, Baira Secretary General Ali Haider Chowdhury said they had no choice but to take the decision.
He said, “We will start our activities again when the government feels the need to work with us.
“We have always urged the government to involve the private sector in the process for its sake.”
Asked about the higher migration costs in the private sector, Haider said the government should identify the foreign jobs where the costs can be low.
In his reaction to the Baira decision, Dr Zafar Ahmed Khan, expatriates' welfare and overseas employment secretary, said, “I welcome the decision. Now we can provide government services to expatriate workers directly.”
The government made the move to ensure transparency and reduce migration costs after some countries made allegations of irregularities in the recruitment process.