Finally they will be able to send money home legally

After suffering for one year due to suspension of private money transfer companies' operation in violence-torn Libya, some 50,000 Bangladeshi expatriates will now be able to send money to their families using their employers' commercial bank accounts.

The Bangladesh embassy in Tripoli made an announcement in this regard on Saturday and urged the migrants to communicate with their employers soon.

“After a long-running appeal, Libya's Central Bank has ordered all its commercial banks to take steps so that the Bangladeshis can send money home through their employers' bank accounts,” ASM Ashraful Islam, counsellor (labour wing) at the embassy, told The Daily Star yesterday.

The announcement brought a sigh of relief to the Bangladeshi workers who had found no legal way to send money home since April last year, as the money transfer companies suspended their operations in Libya on “security grounds”, said the embassy officials.

Masum, son of a migrant from Tangail, told The Daily Star, “My father is working in Libya. But he couldn't send money to Bangladesh [during the period].” 

The Bangladeshis used to avail services of Western Union and MoneyGram, two US-based money transfer companies. However, some Bangladeshis had resorted to illegal channels to send money but the majority did not do that. 

Libya is rife with fighting among different rebel groups.

The Bangladesh embassy could not do anything either, as there is a lack of “legitimacy” of the incumbent Libyan government. 

“We requested the two money transfer companies to make arrangements for our people... But they couldn't resume operations,” said Ashraful Islam, the counsellor.

Finally, the officials convinced the Libyan Central Bank authorities to take the step.

According to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), Bangladeshi expatriates sent $69.83 million in remittance in 2013 and $56.49 million last year. As many as 7,175 Bangladeshis went to Libya in 2013, while the number was 4,461 till July last year.

No worker was officially sent there afterwards, as the Bangladesh government has suspended sending workers to Libya since last August due to escalation of fighting.