Pandemic stalls planned workers migration

The pandemic has either delayed or stalled the process of sending of 85,405 workers to different labour-receiving countries, Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies said yesterday.

Of them, 30,422 workers are waiting for visas, 22,987 received the visas and completed all procedures but could not get flights, while another 19,198 received visas only, Baira said during a virtual views-exchange meeting with the media.

Some 2,816 work visas had expired and flights of another 3,078 workers had been cancelled.

Process of 6,904 workers obtaining visas remains stalled for various reasons, said the country's apex trade body for overseas recruitment which organised the meeting on the pandemic to find ways forward.

Baira Secretary General Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman said the data was from only 328 out of the over 1,200 member agencies of Baira.

"Information from the other agencies could not be obtained because offices of most of them remained closed due to the pandemic," he said.

Noman said prior to the global shutdown, Baira had more than one lakh demand letters for overseas jobs.

Of the now pending visas, about 85 percent were for jobs in Saudi Arabia and the rest were for other Middle East and some East European countries, he added.

He urged the government to declare separate stimulus package for recruitment agencies as those too were suffering the economic fallout of the pandemic.

Baira President Benjir Ahmed said the country now has to prepare and ready its workforce, via training, to meet the demands of the post-Covid-19 international labour market. Bangladesh has to prioritise sectors that will have increased labour demands.

"Only then we will be able to compete in the international labour market," he said.

"We have 1.25 crore migrant workers abroad while they [the Philippines] probably has 10 to 15 lakh. Yet, they earn some $33 billion annually because they are fully equipped and skilled in all sectors," he added.

Bangladesh earned $18.3 billion in remittance last year, according to Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training.

The Baira president said in the coming days, they expect new demands for Bangladeshi workers from Europe, China, and Russia.