Migration from Bangladesh for overseas work began in 1976 and unofficially even earlier as Bangladeshis started to go to Middle-Eastern countries, mainly Saudi Arabia. The numbers rose fast, and emigration has become the third pillar of Bangladesh’s economy, behind agriculture and the garments export industry. Migrants remitted $15 billion to Bangladesh in 2015, that was 13 times more than the total amount of foreign investment. In the past 40 years, almost 10 million Bangladeshis migrated to around 160 countries as skilled, semi-skilled or less-skilled workers, and some as professionals. Around 80 % went to the Arab countries,15 % to Southeast and East Asia, and five percent to other destinations, including the EU and North America. These are the official figures and they give us an idea of what is going on, though reality may be a bit different due to unreported cases. Bangladesh is making progress, but it is still one of the least-developed countries country. Millions have migrated to work abroad. Some manage to become prosperous, but many are exploited and denied rights. Migration, a major pillar for the Bangladesh economy, remains a challenging process for aspiring migrants, many of whom are unskilled or under schooled.The Safe Migration for Bangladeshi Workers Project has helped migrants and their families access reliable information to enable their safe migration.With the help of community-based organizations, SMBW has reached over 1 million prospective migrant workers in 80 sub-districts.
Now, there are approximately 11.46 million Bangladesh workers are working in 155 countries of the world. Most of the workers are migrated to Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore etc countries. Saudi Arabia is the largest migrant worker taking country for Bangladesh. Saudi Arabia alone receives 29 per cent of total migrant workers. In addition to male workers, female workers also migrant to different countries and increases day by day. In 2017, female workers constituted around 12 per cent of total migrant workers. Migrant workers are those people who leave Bangladesh to several destinations for searching job with intension to changing their fate and hope for better life ahead. Every year more than 400000 workers leave Bangladesh for overseas employment. The contribution of migrant workers for the development of socio-economic condition of Bangladesh is inevitable. The economic pillar of our country becomes stronger and stronger by the passing of time with the help of hard working and valuable income of migrant workers. A survey report shows that only 10 per cent migrant workers leave the country through legal channels. Rest of the migrant worker use illegal channel. Most of the cases they do not have knowledge that their used channel is illegal and harmful for them as well as for country.
As a result the migrant workers fall in a victim to fraudulent activities, leading loss to the lifetime savings and bears harassment in all step of migration process. They have to face difficulties and problems once and again in every steps of their departure.
A large number of Bangladeshi migrant workers lost their lives in abroad due to workplace accident, occupational disease and mental torture including excessive workload. At least 3480 Bangladeshi workers died abroad in 2017, this figure was 3375 in 2016 and 3335 in the year 2015. Moreover, the actual number of deceased could be higher than these figures since the illegal migrants who died abroad are not recorded in Bangladesh Mission abroad and also buried at the living place abroad. From 2005 to 2017, i e last 13 years, 33112 Bangladeshi workers lost their lives at overseas workplace.As like, migrate to Singapore, Malaysia and some other Middle East countries, a worker has to spend up to BDT 800000 from minimum BDT 250000. The reason of this high cost is corruption in every stage of the process and involvement of fraudulent agency in the process. Most of the cases the workers left Bangladesh to their hope destination by losing the assets which was only property with him or borrow money on lofty interest from neighbor or other people. The migrant workers fall in the labyrinth after reaching in destination country. They do not know the languages of the new country; even they do not have any idea about the culture of destination country. They have to equip food habit, accommodation and new working environment and many more challenges ahead to them. A major part of workers do not have higher education, even they do not have any literacy.
They are living far away from their family, friends and relatives. They deprived from the love and affection of their family members. They have to observe all festival alone by keeping behind their family in far away. Survey report exhibits that these workers who are not affected by any disease are becomes sick after going to abroad since they are always under pressure to pay back loans and other liabilities they had incurred before travelling abroad. Sometimes the employers take the advantages of their mental state and force them to work extra hour with little pay.The hard earned money sent home by millions of migrant workers is one of the biggest sources of foreign currency for Bangladesh. Record shows that the remittance sent by migrant workers were 7.14 per cent of country's GDP in 2016-2017; which was 12.00 per cent in the year 2014-15. The average contribution of foreign remittance for last five years in country's GDP was 9.00 per cent. This percentage would be higher than the existing if all the foreign remittance is entered in Bangladesh in legal channel.The lack of our awareness and magnitude, this foreign remittance earning member of our country fall in victim and bears various types of physical and mental harassment. Often the employer takes a chance to provide poor living standard, inadequate health security, hazardous nature of work, inadequate food and unhealthy residence. So, the government should be more technical, logical and tactful at the time of agreement of new deal with manpower importing country, so that the rights of these remittance earning members are protected in every aspects.
Bangladesh is one of the top five migrant sending countries in the world but in terms of remittance received, Bangladesh's position is within top ten recipient countries. The recent financial year the remittance inflows of Bangladesh were USD14.98 billion. Remittance has significantly contributed to poverty reduction in Bangladesh. Export of human resources becomes a major part of foreign currency income for Bangladesh. The potentiality of this sector increases day by day with opening various labour market of the world for Bangladesh. What are the major reasons for migration from Bangladesh? There are push and pull factors. Poverty and unemployment are the important push factors. Bangladesh has 160 million people. The economy has been growing at an annual rate of about six percent for some time. The country is definitely making progress but not fast enough. We still have serious problems.
After the independence war of 1971 it was so poor that policymakers in Washington indignantly spoke of a basket case. Nobody there says that anymore. However, young Bangladeshis, especially those without good education, often struggle to find work. Many are desperate to work overseas and on the pull side, there actually are job opportunities overseas. Richer countries rely on migrant workers in a wide range of industries. It matters, moreover, that some Bangladeshi migrants managed to become affluent abroad, and they serve as role models for youngsters who decide to leave the country.
Sometimes, relatively well-off people also send their young people abroad, for instance, because they want them to get a good education, or because the youngsters have become involved in crimes or destructive, radical politics. In general, however, present-day migration from Bangladesh is not driven by religious or political motives. However, one of the persistent challenges is that more than half the migrant workers from Bangladesh are classified as less-skilled. With little education and poor access to information, the desperation to rise out of poverty can cloud basic awareness and judgment of utilizing reliable services and safe channels of migration.
Only 10 per cent of Bangladeshi workers migrate through formal channels. As a result, a vast majority frequently fall victim to fraudulent middlemen and exploitative employers, leading to loss of their lifetime savings and assets; harassment; abuse and imprisonment.
The writer is a columnist