Bangladesh sends 9.30 lakh workers abroad since January

With sincere efforts by different stakeholders, especially the government, Bangladesh sent 9.30 lakh workers abroad with jobs from January to November 2 this year.

“The trend of overseas employment is satisfactory so far and we are expecting to send more remittance senders with jobs this year,” Director of Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) Mamun Sarder told BSS on Sunday.

He said that overall manpower exports from Bangladesh are expected to increase gradually, adding that as many as 930,003 workers have had overseas jobs since January 2024.

Talking to BSS Deputy Director (ongoing charge) of BMET Mohammad Jahirul Alam Majumder said the inflow of remittance has tremendously increased as expatriates’ income has also increased for the last nine consecutive months. 

He said, “Out of a total of 930,003 overseas workers in the last nine months, 858,225 are male workers and 71,778 female.

A record amount of remittance came to Bangladesh in the current year. Expatriate Bangladeshis sent home US$2.40 billion in October 2024, which was 21.83 per cent higher than the corresponding month of the previous year.

The country received $1.97 billion from overseas workers in October 2023, according to the central bank data.

From July to October in the current 2024-25 fiscal year, expatriate Bangladeshis sent a total of $8.93 billion in remittances against $6.87 billion for the same period of the previous fiscal.

Earlier in September 2024, the country got $2.4 billion as remittances. 

“We’ve been working to increase the number of overseas migrant workers as well as ensure their rights and protection,” said the BMET officer.

To increase the number of skilled manpower to grab foreign jobs, experts advised the government to invest in developing need-based skilled manpower like nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers, as its demand would increase in many countries.

The government set up many training centres in different districts along with skill development programmes to create skilful job seekers.

The government also encouraged documented overseas employment, as an important component of earning foreign currency.

The government provides various trainings including diplomas in shipbuilding engineering, refrigeration and air-conditioning, general mechanics, electrical machine maintenance, auto CAD 2D and 3D, welding (6G), catering, mason, Korean, Arabic, canton, Japanese language and others.

Earlier, the government declared the overseas employment sector as a “thrust sector” with maximum stress upon further expanding job markets for Bangladeshi job seekers abroad.