In 2024, the nation’s migration sector remained mired in corruption and irregularities, continued to rely on Middle Eastern labor markets, particularly the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), and failed to investigate new labor destinations or reopen the old ones. Up until December 20th of this year, almost 60% of all workers who traveled overseas selected the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as their destination; in the past two months, this percentage has risen to over 80%. In addition, the workers who were headed to Malaysia had a nightmare year since an organized syndicate allegedly embezzled more than $1 billion from Bangladesh while misleading the workers. Despite making deposits, almost 17,000 workers missed the deadline to travel to Malaysia, and many of them have not received their money back from their various agencies, despite the fact that no action has been taken against the offenders. KSA reliance persists despite minimal destination diversification.
Migration challenges persist
Saudi Arabia accounted for 595,025 of the 971,441 workers who relocated overseas this year, according to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET). This indicates that about 60% of the workforce has moved to Saudi Arabia alone. Just 20% of all exiting workers in the past two months have left for nations other than Saudi Arabia. “The 2034 FIFA World Cup football will be held in Saudi Arabia. As a result, the nation needs a sizable workforce for construction. In the upcoming years, this number will rise even more. In order to take advantage of this opportunity, we are working to improve the abilities of our employees. But quality migration will be hampered if we continue to rely only on the Saudi market. Ali Haider Chowdhury, secretary general of the Bangladeshi committee that was recently suspended by Association of International Recruiting Agencies. According to him, it is now essential to grow the declining markets, reactivate the existing ones, and discover new labor destinations. While Oman’s market is open to qualified workers in just nine categories, the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) market was closed informally last August. Furthermore, since the Southeast Asian nation ceased accepting workers on May 31, there is little indication that the Malaysian market will reopen for Bangladeshi laborers.
Irregularities in migration remain
However, representatives of the Ministry of Overseas Employment and Expatriates’ Welfare assert that they have been engaged in this activity. Md. Ruhul Amin, the secretary for overseas employment and expatriates’ welfare, stated that “continual efforts are being made to expand the market.” Opportunities for Bangladeshi workers in Brunei have been successfully restored. Employees are traveling to Russia. To reopen that market, we will meet with the Malaysian authorities shortly. Additionally, he notes that Europe has a high demand for qualified people, which is why they are placing a strong emphasis on worker skill development. Most staff who were unable to travel to Malaysia were not reimbursed. At least 16,970 workers were unable to travel to Malaysia because they were unable to pick up their airline tickets or obtain confirmation that their employers would meet them at the airport. On June 1st of this year, Malaysia halted its Bangladeshi labor market. However, 476,642 of the 893,642 BMET employees who were cleared by recruiting firms were able to travel to the Southeast Asian country, while the remaining employees were left behind.
Impunity in migration issues
If employees have not received a reimbursement, the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment requests that they file a complaint along with all necessary documentation. Only about 3,500 employees complained to the ministry in response. The ministry later gave workers many deadlines to return their money, but many organizations disregarded the order. According to a poll released earlier this month by the US-based non-profit Verite, the government set the migration cost to Malaysia at TK78,990, meaning that a worker would have to spend approximately Tk5.44 lakh, or $5,000. Numerous employees told the Daily Sun that the organizations to which they paid their money refused to return even TK78,990, much less TK5.44 lakh. The year of syndication, impunity, and irregularities. A monopoly was established by a syndicate of 100 Bangladeshi recruitment agencies chosen by Malaysian authorities, which prevented workers from traveling to Malaysia without paying significantly more than the government-set threshold.
Beyond migration dependency
According to industry insiders, a gang headed by Ruhul Amin Swapan, the owner of Catharsis International in Bangladesh, and Datuk Seri Mohd Amin Abdul Nor, the founder of the IT company Bestinet in Malaysia, embezzled approximately $1 billion from Bangladesh. Former members of parliament from Feni-2, Nizam Uddin Hazari (Snigdha Overseas), Feni-3 Lt Col (retd) Masud Uddin Chowdhury (5M International), Dhaka-20 Benjir Ahmed (Ahmed International), and Kashmiri Kamal (Orbitals Enterprise), the wife of former finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, are also part of the syndicate.