Bangladesh sends 9.30 lakh workers abroad since January

From January to November 2 of this year, 9.30 lakh workers were transferred overseas by Bangladesh thanks to the earnest efforts of all stakeholders, particularly the government.

“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 here today.

He stated that up to 930,003 persons have obtained jobs abroad since January 2024 and that a gradual increase in Bangladesh’s overall manpower exports is anticipated.

Speaking to Mohammad Jahirul Alam Majumder, BSS Deputy Director (ongoing charge) of BMET, he stated that for the past nine months, the inflow of remittances has significantly increased in tandem with the income of expatriates.

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

In addition, Bangladesh received a record volume of remittances this year. In October 2024, Bangladeshi expatriates sent home US$2.40 billion, a 21.83 percent increase over the same month the year before.

According to central bank data, the nation got $1.97 billion from foreign workers in October 2023.

In the current fiscal year 2024–25, expatriate Bangladeshis sent $8.93 billion in remittances from July to October, compared to $6.87 billion during the same time in the previous fiscal year.

The nation received $2.4 billion in remittances earlier in September 2024.

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

For increasing 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 jobseekers.

Additionally, the government promoted legal foreign work as a significant source of foreign exchange earnings.

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, and other languages are among the many trainings offered by the government.

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