Migration costs for workers still high despite govt assurances

Migration costs for Bangladeshi workers remain high despite assurances from the interim government that it will act against illegal "visa trading," a key factor driving up expenses.

The White Paper on the state of Bangladesh's economy, released earlier this month, has identified the high cost of migration as the top of the seven key challenges facing the overseas employment sector, which has intensified over the last decade.

Bangladeshi migrant workers pay the highest in South Asia, according to the White Paper findings.

Debapriya Bhattacharya, chair of the White Paper committee, at a roundtable discussion in Dhaka yesterday, said political corruption increases the expenses of sending Bangladeshi workers abroad.

"While sending a worker from Nepal costs a certain amount, in Bangladesh it costs three times more, with political corruption involved," he said.

Migration costs — including passport fees, training, recruiting agency fees and sub-agent fees — have doubled or tripled for various major destinations over the last 15 years. Industry insiders have attributed the soaring costs to the growth of illegal syndicates during the Sheikh Hasina-led government.

As part of providing "VIP services" to migrant workers, Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus last month inaugurated two lounges at Dhaka airport, one inside the terminal offering rest areas and subsidised food and another waiting lounge in the multilevel car park.

However, there has been no visible progress in the last five months to curb the high migration expenses which, according to estimates from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, can force a migrant to work for up to 17 months simply to recoup the expense.

Govt's action

A top official of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), the regulatory Body of the recruiting agencies, told TBS yesterday that curbing visa trading is challenging.

Many people obtain employment visas through personal connections, making it challenging to curb visa trading in these cases. Nonetheless, policy interventions will be necessary to end visa trading in destination countries," he said.

In addition, efforts are underway to make Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited, the government-owned recruiting agency, more active, said the official. "This would compel private agencies to reduce their expenses."

Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Affairs Adviser Asif Nazrul in late September told reporters that the government was working to bring all recruiting agents and sub-agents under accountability.

He said that the government would not allow any syndicate to control migration expenses.

Govt-set costs yet to be a reality

The Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment in 2017 set the highest migration cost at Tk262,270 for Singapore.

It also set the highest costs at Tk1,65,000 for Saudi Arabia, Tk97,780 for Bahrain, Tk107,780 for the UAE, Tk106,780 for Kuwait, Tk100,780 for both Oman and Qatar, Tk129,540 for Iraq, Tk115,780 for the Maldives, Tk120,780 for Brunei, Tk117,780 for Lebanon, Tk102,780 for Jordan and Tk148,500 for Japan.

The government in 2021 had set a minimum cost at Tk78,990 for Malaysia.

But the expenses for low-skilled overseas job seekers from Bangladesh to major destinations, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Singapore, currently range from Tk4 lakh to Tk10 lakh, according to sector insiders. Before 2008, the costs ranged from Tk80,000 to Tk5 lakh.

Mostafa Kamal, a sub-agent involved in sending workers to Kuwait, told TBS that he recently sent a worker from Cumilla's Chauddagram to Kuwait, with total expenses amounting to Tk7 lakh.

Reform commission demanded

Although sector insiders have demanded the formation of a reform commission to bring about major changes by identifying the corrupt syndicates, the interim government has yet to form such a body to review labour migration, which generates over $22 billion in remittances annually — one of the pillars of Bangladesh's economy.

The government has said illegal visa trading, which has even led to the closure of two key markets — Malaysia and Oman — in recent times, must be eliminated.

"This sector is being regarded as a form of human trafficking, plagued by corruption, hundi operations and syndicates year after year. In the context of the anti-discrimination movement, a comprehensive reform was necessary to alleviate the suffering of remittance warriors in a new Bangladesh," Syed Saiful Haque, chairman of the Welfare Association for the Rights of Bangladeshi Emigrants (WARBE) Development Foundation, told TBS.

He added, "Despite advocating for a commission to address these issues, we have yet to see any initiatives in this regard."

Mushrooming recruiting agencies

The white paper highlights the unprecedented growth of recruiting agencies over the last decade, where political considerations and corruption have played a dominant role.

Recruiting agents derive their influence from their involvement with the political process, which contributes to the high expense of migration.

From 1976 to 2015, the government issued licenses to 935 recruiting agencies. Annually, 20 to 30 new agencies would receive licenses, while the licenses of some errant agencies were cancelled.

From 2018 to 2023, 1,185 new licenses were issued, with 800 of them being issued in 2022 and 2023.

To bring the number of recruiting agencies to a rational level, the licenses of non-performing agencies and those which have committed fraud should be cancelled. The recent spike in the issuance of recruiting licenses should be investigated to ensure the accountability of decision-makers," Professor Tasneem Siddiqui, a member of the white paper committee, told The Business Standard.

To reduce the cost of migration, the government should raise the issue of visa trading in multilateral forums as well as in bilateral negotiations. Strict restrictions should be imposed on recruiting agencies to prevent unnecessary increases in the price of visas and keep away other South Asian competitors," added Siddiqui, who is also the founding chair of the Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit (RMMRU).

Opaque visa purchase cost

The recruiting agencies identify two types of charges that contribute to the migration cost: visa purchase and Iqama fees, particularly in Saudi Arabia.

"Recruiting agencies incur marketing costs in obtaining job demand letters from abroad. However, these expenses have no legal recognition. We have long advocated for the establishment of a formal channel for this process," Shamim Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, former secretary general of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies, said.

This would make it clear how much money is being spent on visa trading and allow for regulated expense limits, he added.

Additionally, to reduce migration expenses, a database-driven recruitment system and mandatory banking transactions have been demanded.

Recruiting agencies have channelled Tk13.4 lakh crore through illegal hundi transactions for visa purchases over the last decade, according to the White Paper.