The number of laborers being sent from Bangladesh to other nations is gradually declining. In recent years, the country's overseas labor market has been steadily declining. Over the past year, Bangladesh's exports of labor to the international labor market have dropped by almost 30%. It is quite dangerous that 90% of the global labor market is now dependent on only three nations. Due to the closing of numerous significant labor markets and the lack of new labor markets being developed overseas, manpower exports are gradually decreasing.
According to data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), 1 million 11 thousand 869 workers from Bangladesh went abroad in 2024. Of these, 95 percent of the workers went to just five countries: Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Qatar, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. However, this number is about 30 percent less than in 2023. In 2023, 1,307,890 workers were sent abroad. BMET data also shows that the top three countries to which Bangladesh exported the most manpower in the first six months of this year are Saudi Arabia (73 percent), Qatar (9.32 percent), and Singapore (6.28 percent). This means that these three countries accounted for 90 percent of the total manpower export. This means that these three countries accounted for 90 percent of the total manpower export. Only 10 percent went to the rest of the world.
Meanwhile, manpower exports have decreased significantly this year. According to BMET data, manpower exports in the first 6 months of this year have decreased by about 30,000 compared to the same period last year. As of June 23 this year, 483,000 workers have been employed abroad. However, 510,000 workers were employed abroad during the same period last year. In January this year, 97,873 workers went abroad. But in February, this number decreased to 62,442. This means that manpower export decreased by about 20 percent in February alone compared to January this year. While 105,000 workers got employment opportunities in March, the number dropped significantly to below 50,000 in April. However, it increased slightly again in May and June, reaching 168,000 in these two months. The trend of foreign employment this year is trending downward.
Officials from the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment told Khaborer Kagoj that the crisis has arisen due to the closure of three major overseas labor markets in Bangladesh. These three countries are the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Oman. In addition, countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar have also seen a decline in manpower exports.
They said that efforts are underway to open the labor markets of the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia. The United Arab Emirates is taking in manpower on a very limited scale, which is negligible. There have been several meetings regarding opening the labor market in Malaysia. The ball is now in Malaysia's court. It was supposed to take 8,000 Bangladeshis who were unable to travel to Malaysia last year despite having visas. Along with this, the labor market was supposed to be reopened. But nothing has been announced from Malaysia yet. It is expected that the country will announce this in July-August.
On the other hand, a few months ago, a Foreign Ministry official who accompanied Chief Adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus during his visit to the United Arab Emirates told Khabarer Kagoj that the Chief Adviser had spoken to some ministers about opening the closed labor market in the country. He said that relations are not good if the visa is closed. UAE ministers said at that time that their country was updating its system to stop people from obtaining visas using fake documents, and visas for Bangladeshis would resume once that was confirmed. But this labor market was closed after a section of Bangladeshis working in the country protested there in support of the July coup. Thousands of Bangladeshis have previously migrated to third countries with fake certificates and documents using fake UAE visas. The country has become cautious about issuing visas to Bangladeshis since this was widely proven. The official believes that it would be difficult to open the UAE labor market until this distrust and mistrust are resolved. He also said that the situation had become more complicated because the labor market in Bahrain was also closed, along with Oman.
An interim government led by Dr. Muhammad Yunus came to power on August 5 after the fall of Sheikh Hasina's government as a result of a student uprising. Then, manpower traders hoped that it would be possible to increase foreign employment by utilizing the international image of Nobel laureate Dr. Yunus. But although various advisors to the new government have spoken on the expatriate issue at various times, no effective initiatives have been seen in practice so far.
