Editorial
High migration cost fallout
Why not bank-roll manpower export?
ALTHOUGH the overseas employment minister Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain has been harping the same tune, there is a good deal of rationale behind it. The argument behind his assertion that high migration cost may spell doom for manpower export in future is forceful enough to draw attention. Already, we are taking the brunt of a declining curve in overseas employment requiring an effective thrust to shore it up.
The self-deceived employees have to spend Tk 2 to 2.5 lakh to go abroad, mostly on borrowed money, but the money they go on to earn hardly yields any surplus to repay the loans. In fact, they are usually in the red. Therefore, they are constrained to overstay their contracted periods thinking they will be able to repay their debts in addition to remitting money to the country after meeting their subsistence costs. That is exactly when they turn illegal migrants in the eye of the host country, virtual fugitives from the law. In the process, the country earns a bad name which gets reflected through different ways, one of them being lowering the quota for Bangladeshi intake. True, the recession has had its crunch effect. But that is more the reason why we must redouble our efforts in winning back some of the lost jobs. At the same time, the government should essentially gear up to break new grounds in overseas employment.
It is of utmost importance that we train up manpower on the basis of market needs, both domestic and international. The time is up for not any more sticking to conventional job creation activities.
On the specific question of migration costs, the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), the minister thinks, 'can send workers at Tk 25 to 30 thousand', if so he adds, it will pressurise the recruitment agencies to lower their fees substantially. We are not too sure of the low cost cited by the minister but it appears to us that the answer to the whole issue lies in entrusting a bank with the task of financing such migration with job permits. Why is this not coming about?
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