Welcome to Business Outlook
Related Articles
Bangladesh’s remittance earnings from Malaysia and Singapore have suffered a major setback in the JulySeptember quarter of 2021 as fresh recruitment to the countries from Bangladesh has remained almost halted.
Although the overall remittance inflow in the country dropped by 19.44 per cent year-on-year in July-September of 2021 period, the flow from Malaysia and Singapore plunged by 52.1 per cent and 40.96 per cent respectively during the period under consideration.
According to the latest Bangladesh Bank data, the inflow of remittance from Malaysia dropped to $290.86 million in the July-September period of 2021 against the inflow of $607.24 million in the corresponding period in 2020.
Allegations of malpractice in the recruitment process and high recruitment costs prompted the Malaysian government to suspend recruiting workers from Bangladesh in September 2018.
An investigation into the allegations revealed that each worker paid 20,000 ringgit, equivalent to Tk 4.44 lakh, to Bangladeshi agents who then paid half the sum to a certain syndicate to facilitate approval of work permits and flight tickets to Malaysia.
However, the entire process – from documentation to transporting workers to Malaysia from Bangladesh — was supposed to cost a recruiting agent less than 2,000 ringgit per worker.
As a result of the Malaysian government’s decision, employment of Bangladeshi nationals to the country dropped to 545 in 2019 after hitting 1,75,927 in 2018.
The number of Bangladeshi workers employed in Malaysia continued to drop in 2020 and 2021 as well. In 2020 and 2021, the number of workers recruited was 125 and 18 respectively.
Asked, former Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies secretary general Kazi Mohammad Mofizur Rahman told New Age, ‘Recruitment in Malaysia from Bangladesh came to a halt when a new government was formed there.’
He, however, hoped that the government might open the market soon for Bangladeshi and Indonesia workers for tree plantation-related jobs as they were facing labour scarcity for the jobs.’
‘Once the market is opened for tree plantation, the other job sectors would gradually be opened,’ he expected.
Besides Malaysia, the country’s remittance income from Singapore dropped to $111.63 million in JulySeptember of 2021 against earnings of $189.06 million in the corresponding period in 2020.
Restrictions to curb Covid infections since March 2020 acted as the major reason behind the plunge in employment opportunities in Singapore.
As per government data, the migration of Bangladeshi employees to Singapore dropped to 10,085 in 2020 from 49,829 in 2019.
Even though fresh recruitment to the country has remained halted since May 2021, many of the country’s employees have returned to Bangladesh since then and were not allowed to re-enter Singapore due to the Covid restrictions.
However, the city-state has started allowing travellers from Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to enter or transit through the country since October 26.
As a result of relaxation of the restrictions, migration to Singapore has been restored but still remains slow.
Apart from Singapore and Malaysia, remittance earnings from Australia and Japan dropped by 19.33 per cent and 15.31 per cent respectively year-on-year in the July-September quarter of 2021.
As a result, the country’s overall remittance earnings from the Asia-Pacific countries dropped by 47.38 per cent to $448.39 million in July-September from $852.13 million in the same quarter in 2020.
The country’s overall remittance earnings from the Gulf countries, which constitute 55.02 per cent of the total earnings, also dropped by 22.19 per cent year-on-year in July-September of 2021.
Year-on-year earnings from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman dropped by 19.2 per cent, 40.61 per cent and 40.01 per cent respectively in the three months under consideration.
During the quarter of 2021, the country’s overall remittance earnings dropped to $5.41 billion from $6.71 billion in the same period of 2020.
The total number of outgoing workers was 73,992 in July-September of 2021.
As per the World Bank report titled ‘Migration and Development Brief 34, May 2021’, Bangladesh ranked third among South Asian countries with 3.04 per cent of market share of global remittance earnings while India and Pakistan were the top two countries in the region.
(NA)
