Problems with manpower export

Remittance earning undoubtedly plays a very important role in the country's macro-economic management. The inflow of remittance which amounted to a few million dollars in the mid seventies has grown in size over a period of last three and a half decades and it now fetches about $10 billion annually. Besides the Middle Eastern countries that have been employing the majority of the Bangladeshi migrant workers, more and more unskilled and semi-skilled workers are taking up employment or being self-employed in countries in Southeast Asia, Europe, North America and Africa.

But manpower exports to the countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia have been particularly experiencing a downtrend lately for various factors, the foremost one being the entry of some illegal Bangladeshis along with legal migrants. Authorities in these countries took exception to such entry and, from time to time, deported many illegal Bangladeshi workers. But in most cases these unfortunate workers are defrauded by a section of unscrupulous manpower agents who usually promise well-paid jobs against payment of a handsome amount. But on arrival these poor workers find themselves in great trouble as the promise that the manpower agents make in many cases is found to be false. Most defrauded people start staying in those countries illegally and take up low-paid menial jobs, something which is very much unwelcome to the governments of the host countries.

The employing countries concerned usually manifest their dissatisfaction over such illegal stay of foreign workers either through deportation of illegal workers or slowing down recruitment of manpower from the countries concerned. This has happened in the case of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. The recruitment of Bangladeshi workers by Saudi Arabia has declined by a great margin for the last two years and all efforts of the government to convince the Saudi authorities to employ greater number of Bangladeshi workers have borne no fruit. The alleged involvement of a section of 'Bangladeshi' workers in criminal activities in that country is yet another major cause of growing dissatisfaction among the Saudi authorities. It was found time and again most of Bangladeshi passport holders involved in criminal activities were in fact Rohingyas who entered Bangladesh from neighbouring Myanmar in the face of persecution by the authorities there.

The problem relating to Rohingyas carrying Bangladeshi passports is also now being noticed in the case of Malaysia, which after a long gap has started legalising illegal Bangladeshi workers there. The detection of Rohingyas now poses a fresh threat to that legalisation process and export of fresh manpower. The obvious question that would agitate one's mind: How can Rohingyas get Bangladeshi passports? In fact, it highlights the imperfections present in the system of issuance of passports. The special branch of police is supposed to verify the identity and criminal antecedents of each and every individual seeking a passport. There must be some inadequacies and shortcomings in the police verification process. The relevant authorities need to ensure the correctness and quality of the verification process at any cost.