Where did most Bangladeshi migrant workers go in 2022?

Over 11.35 lakh Bangladeshis migrated to foreign nations in 2022, the highest ever in the history of the south Asian country.

In 2021, the number was only 6.17 lakh, according to data from the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET).

Of the 11.35 lakh, the highest number of 612,418 workers went to Saudi Arabia, meaning the Kingdom hired 54 per cent of the total outgoing migrants of Bangladesh.

Since 1976, a total of 5,280,960 workers have so far been gone to Saudi Arabia, according to BMET data.

Oman and the United Arab Emirates were the second and third biggest destinations, which received 179,612 and 101,775 Bangladeshi migrant workers respectively.

Singapore, Malaysia, Qatar and Kuwait were among the top seven employers of Bangladeshi workers last year.

According to BMET data, 64,383 workers left for Singapore, 50,090 for Malaysia, 24,447 for Qatar and 20,422 for Kuwait.

Workers were mainly hired in the service, construction and agriculture sectors last year.

On average, Bangladesh sent 5-6 lakh workers a year in the past one decade and the number was around 7 lakh before the pandemic hit the country, BMET data showed.