Migration has long been a key source of foreign exchange earnings for Bangladesh but the cost of migration from Bangladesh is considered one of the highest in the world.
Expenditure including airfare for migrant workers going abroad is much higher than their income and they have to work for years to recover the costs.
According to a recent report published by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics with the financial and technical support of the International Labour Organisation, a Bangladeshi immigrant has to spend an average of Tk 4,16,789 to migrate whereas their average monthly income is little over Tk 23 thousand. Such statistics exposes the inconsistency between the cost of migration and monthly income of our oversees workers.
It is time to formulate pragmatic policy to
reduce migration costs that occur at every
stage of the labour migration cycle
High migration cost exposes our oversees workers to different forms of vulnerabilities. Being desperate to recover the migration cost, most of the migrant workers holds on to their jobs even when the work environment is unfavourable.
Also, many migrant workers illegally change their jobs when they find that their salary is too low and the working conditions are precarious. There are a plethora of instances of our migrant workers getting involved in illegal activities out of desperation to earn extra money.
It needs no emphasising that so far we have failed to reduce the ever-increasing migration cost putting the intending job-seekers under severe strains. It is time to formulate pragmatic policy to reduce migration costs that occur at every stage of the labour migration cycle.
We require concerted efforts at the global, regional, national, and local level to reduce migration costs. Last but not least, our
oversees jobseekers need to verify job, salary and security measures properly before going to any country.