Remittances from expatriates up

Remittances from overseas Bangladeshis have been one of the two major sources of foreign exchange earning for the country, the other one being the garments export. The upward trend in remittances from our overseas workers is heartening, more so when the garments sector faces a tough challenge into the post-MFA era. But indeed, there is so much more manpower export potential in Bangladesh that awaits fuller utilisation.

It should be possible to increase the levels of employability and exportability of idle Bangladeshi manpower by imparting training in different fields based on market assessments of demands for different categories employees in foreign countries. Our manpower export has been geared to meeting low to middle range employment requirement such as of electricians, drivers and small-time technicians and service personnel.

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We can both diversify and broad-base manpower exports like the Philippines and Sri Lanka by operating training regimes that responded to researched-out active market demands for different categories of skilled and semi-skilled manpower.

Concurrently, it is absolutely necessary for the government to ensure protection of the rights of thousands of our expatriate workers who are being short-changed right, left and centre in appalling breach of contracts in some countries. The poor souls go on their own scrounging their last family farthing or with money borrowed on stiff mortgage terms, but as they go through the mill of the expatriate working environment, the last thing they want is to feel abandoned. That is where they abjectly need home-country support by way of having their conditions monitored and their legitimate rights protected overseas.

A word about how they are received into the country on their arrival back home would be relevant here. They are the most ignored and perhaps harassed people at the airport. Given their contribution to the economy, they deserve a royal treatment. But what a far cry it is now.