Editorial
Streamlining foreign recruitment procedures
Will it end workers' plight?
Thanks to irregular practices resorted to by the bulk of our private recruitment agencies, for years thousands of Bangladeshi workers serving in various international labour markets have had to suffer. The suffering was not limited to having to pay three or even four times what it normally cost to send a worker to a foreign labour market; there was constant danger of being swindled, or even worse trafficked and left to rot in a jail in some foreign land.
Thanks primarily to these illegal activities by Bangladeshi private recruiting agencies that resulted in Bangladesh losing one of its largest foreign labour market Malaysia back in 2009, an impending Memorandum of Understanding to be signed between the countries to handle export of manpower on a state-to-state level is much welcome news. The fact that two government agencies and not the private sector will handle the initial phase of the new recruitment plan is another step in the right direction. The agreement will put into effect a mechanism whereby Malaysian authorities can tap into the online database maintained by BMET for cross-referencing and the government-to-government dealing will effectively reduce cost of recruitment for aspirant overseas workers down to an estimated Tk50,000.
Before we get carried away with all this exuberance, it ought to be remembered that recruitment agencies are unlikely to sit by and let this lucrative market slip through their fingers unchallenged. It remains to be seen whether the government and in particular, Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Authority have what it takes to not give in to unscrupulous, yet financially mighty business interests. This issue is of paramount importance to the economy as foreign remittances represent an annual inflow of $12billion which plays a crucial role in our ability to pay for imports.
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