Jobs abroad see 20pc drop in first 4 months

Foreign jobs dropped by about 20 percent in the first four months of this year compared to the same period last year mainly due to sharp decline in major markets of Malaysia and Oman.

Between January and April this year, workers' migration to other major destinations like Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore also saw decline whereas Saudi Arabia and Qatar saw an increase.

These seven countries together hired 93.58 percent of the total 13.05 lakh Bangladeshi workers who migrated to various destinations last year.

According to Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training data, over 3.22 lakh workers migrated abroad from January to April this year compared to 4.01 lakh workers a year ago, a decline by 79,606 workers.

Malaysia hired 1.01 lakh workers but the outflow dropped by 56 percent to 44,727.

Before closing its door indefinitely for Bangladesh and 13 other source countries from June, Malaysia recruited about 30,000 more workers in the previous month.

Pointing on Malaysia's intaking of workers from Bangladesh since 2022, State Minister for Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Shofiqur Rahman Choudhury recently said as of May 31 this year, of about 493,642 workers cleared by BMET, 476,672 could leave for Malaysia by the deadline.

Since the market's reopening, about 4.46 lakh workers have migrated to Malaysia.

On the other hand, Oman announced a temporary visa suspension in all categories for Bangladesh in October last year as an "increasing number of laid-off workers were illegally working there" without the full legal protection of their rights.

Affected by the suspension, the Middle East country saw only 302 workers entering there from Bangladesh this year.

In the first four months of last year, Oman recruited 56,184 workers from Bangladesh.

Although Oman recently lifted visa restrictions on several categories for Bangladeshi nationals, it was yet to lift the ban on work visas.

In a note, the Oman embassy said both authorities concerned in Oman and Bangladesh were working towards lifting the ban on work visas, which was in progress.

Among other major destinations, 1.69 lakh workers migrated to Saudi Arabia till April this year compared to 1.57 lakh workers during the same period last year.

The number of workers migrating to the UAE dropped from 29,069 last year to 26,192 this year, Kuwait from 9,222 to 9,121, and Singapore from 16,247 workers last year to 14,964 workers this year.

However, the number of workers migrating to Qatar saw a significant jump from last year's 8,291 to 24,936 this year.

On February 27, the state minister told parliament that the government has a work plan to send 60 lakh workers abroad in the next five years.

He said Bangladesh is sending workers to around 176 countries and a total of 99.9 lakh Bangladeshi people have been employed abroad in the last 15 years.