Skilled labour migration from Bangladesh rises

The rate of less-skilled (widely known as unskilled) labour migration from Bangladesh has dropped around 23 percent this year to 6.26 lakh compared to last calendar year.

The country sent a record 12 lakh workers abroad as of 11 December 2023. Of the figures, the rate of skilled migration was around 25% while unskilled workers was around 50%, according to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET).

Skilled worker employment from Bangladesh surged 22% this year, taking the number to 3.08 lakh compared to 2.52 lakh in 2022.

Around 2.61 lakh semi-skilled workers migrated this year while the number was just 42,771 in 2022.

The country also sent 50,158 professionals including doctors, nurses, engineers, IT specialists this year which was 3640 in previous year.

The dominating skilled categories were drivers, caregivers, domestic staff, hospitality personnel, electrician, quality control supervisor, refrigeration and air conditioning, plumbing and pipefitting and general electrical workers, according to labour recruiters.

Despite progress, experts and policymakers say the country is struggling to meet the global market's demand for skilled labour as half of its workforce is classified as unskilled.

Bangladesh is identified as a major source of low-paid labour in the global market which is the reason behind poor per worker remittance than its competitors like Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India.

Stakeholders cite poor outreach for technical training programmes at the grassroots level, a rather large demand for unskilled workers in the Middle East, and employment of a good number of trained workers in local industries are the major reasons behind the high rate of unskilled Bangladeshi migrants.

Though the country has 70 fully operational technical training centres among 110 under BMET, still the number of trainees is not more than 10 percent than total labour migrants.

There is a demand-supply mismatch of skilled workers due to lack of sufficient coordination among bodies concerned.

The experts say that existing institutions are not sufficient and full-equipped to provide skilled manpower as per the global demand.

However, the government has plans to build technical training centres in every upazila among which 40 projects are running.

'Initiative to create skilled manpower not enough'

"We have not been able to create skilled workers according to the market demand. That's why I don't see any initiative on a large scale, Syeda Rozana Rashid, a migration expert and also a professor of the Department of International Relations, Dhaka University, told The Business Standard.    

She also said, "There has been talk of exploring new markets for several years. But the good market is not being explored that way. Everyone goes to markets where brokers or syndicates operate. There is intense competition in the existing market. Due to these reasons we are not able to decrease the number of unskilled workers.

"For those who engage in domestic work, we categorise them into the skilled category. Perhaps, as a result, there is a significant numerical disparity in skilled workers. However, overall, our level of skills has not increased."

Regarding technical training centres she said, "From my personal experience I can say they offer good stuff. But the problem is there is no coordination. We are not able to send the right people after determining how many people are needed for trade in any country."

"Notifying and sending the person who can fill up the demand abroad with training. This has been a problem for at least the last two decades."

Recognition of former employees and their skills, as well as their successful reintegration into the workforce, is not happening anymore, Rozana Rashid said.

Larger part of manpower remain out of training coverage

Bangladesh sent around 11.37 lakh workers abroad in FY23, but only 1.20 lakh people got the training under short courses of technical training centres in the same year, according to the BMET authorities.

But the authorities do not know how many of them went abroad in the same year after getting training.

"Many of those who take the training work in the country for a few years. Then they take the opportunity and go abroad. But we do not have the exact data on how many of them go abroad," Md Salah Uddin, director (Training Operation) of BMET, told TBS.

Stating that technical training centres' capacity has increased more than before, he said, "Earlier we could provide training to maximum 40,000, which has now increased to more than 1.2 lakh. The newly-inaugurated 40 technical training centres have not been fully operational. If they are operational, we can provide more training."

Those technical training centres provide training on at best 55 trades including mid-level supervisor, refrigeration, graphics design and general electrician.

"We have established technical training centres in every district. Currently, these are somewhat weak, but I hope they will become more effective," Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said on Thursday during a seminar titled "Efficiently Preparing the Youth Workforce of Our Country and Facilitating Their Entry into the Global Placements" at North South University in Dhaka.

Language proficiency a major barrier

"Various countries often seek doctors, nurses, caregivers, etc, from us. But we cannot provide them with adequate numbers due to the lack of language proficiency of the labour forces," the foreign minister said.

"We have recently received offers for 28,000 jobs from Hong Kong, but we could not send even 2,000. We have people, but we lack the individuals with appropriate skills.

"We have sent 5,300 female caregivers to the UK this year. Unfortunately, most of them have very poor language proficiency and technical know-how. Many of them are now unemployed and in dire straits. So we have to bring many of them back.

"We are now getting a significant number of job offers from non-traditional destinations like Romania, Poland, Greece and Italy. Poland said a few days ago that they want to import 100,000 manpower. But they want skilled people."

Around 52% of Bangladeshi migrants have faced challenges like poor health, food, shelter and physical torture in destinations for lack of skills like language barrier, according to a research of expatriate welfare ministry published this year.         

According to data from the BMET, the country has sent a staggering 12.46 lakh workers abroad until 11 December this year, surpassing last year's figure of 11.35 lakh.

A positive aspect of this year's labour migration is the record number of workers sent to non-traditional destinations such as Italy and the UK, a move away from the conventional markets in the Middle East.

Italy stands out with the highest single-year recruitment of 16,297 workers, particularly in agriculture, hospitality, and manufacturing. In an exceptional trend, the UK recruited a record 9,427 workers, primarily in roles such as caregivers, domestic staff, and hospitality personnel. South Korea and Singapore have also seen a significant influx of Bangladeshi workers this year.

Per worker remittance figure very low

The average monthly remittance sent by a Bangladeshi expat is $203.33 (equivalent to Tk22,323 based on the current dollar rate), while it is $564.1 for a Filipino worker, which is more than double compared to a Bangladeshi, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in 2019.

Moreover, the monthly average income of a Pakistani expat is $275.74 and $395.71 for an Indian and $532.71 for a Chinese citizen.