The leaders of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), an apex body of the country’s recruiting agents, have agreed to open Bangladesh’s all markets for migrant workers to all recruiting agencies without any syndication. After getting such assurance from all members in a views exchange meeting held at a hotel in Dhaka, BAIRA President Abul Bashar urged the government for amending the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Bangladesh and Malaysia over hiring Bangladeshi migrants to the country under its foreign migrants hiring programme. He also sought Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s intervention so that the issue of opening the Malaysian market for Bangladeshi workers for all agencies can be discussed in the meetings with Malaysian Home Minister who will visit Bangladesh from February 4 (Saturday). Bashar said, “We were thinking that more than 500 agencies will send workers in Malaysia. Considering the matter, the Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry had sent a list on 1,520 valid agencies to the country.” “However, they have selected only 25 agencies for hiring migrant workers. It’s their consideration as per the MoU signed between the two countries,” he said. Bashar said that they protested the decision of syndication. But after the last election of BAIRA, they communicated with Malaysian authorities while they agreed to extend it to 75 and later to 100. “Now, 100 agencies are working to send migrants there. But, we want to keep the market open for all agencies. We have sent letters to the Prime Ministers and ministers concerned of the two countries requesting them to take necessary measures in this regard,” he said. “We will try to convince the Malaysian Home Minister during his visit to Dhaka by meeting him at any cost,” said the BAIRA President. He said: “If we can keep the market open for all agencies, all agencies will be able to work. It would help the agencies to send at least 1,000 migrants abroad from all districts without any charge as per the pledge of the Prime Minister.” Among others, BAIRA Secretary General Shamim Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, Senior Vice President Reaz Ul Islam, Vice President Abul Barakat Bhuiyan, former Secretary General Ali Haider Chowdhury, Joint Secretary General Fakhrul Islam and Akbor Hossain Monju, and agency owners Anwar Hossain, Majibar Rahman, Abdul Matin, Ismail Hossain, Mohammad Forkan also spoke at the programme. Read more: BAIRA won't submit passports at Saudi embassy anymore

Although the labour market in Libya has recently reopened for Bangladeshis after a pause of nearly a decade due to the Libyan Civil War, just 15 recruiting agencies are now calling the shots, making the once lucrative destination in the MENA region uncertain and costlier for job seekers. In February this year, Libya's labour market was reopened for Bangladeshis, but the Libyan Embassy in Dhaka was said to be lax in receiving and delivering passports submitted by any agency other than "the 15." The 15 recruiting agencies are said to have been "unethically demanding extra money" for delivering the passports submitted by them after stamping visas. However, following the intervention of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), the embassy started accepting and delivering passports submitted by other agencies on October 24, 2022. Also read: No headway in sending Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia despite agreement In November last year, Bangladesh lifted the restriction on sending workers to Libya considering the "improved political situation" in the war-torn country. In 2012, the government banned sending workers to Libya following political unrest in the country. Sohail Ahsan Khan, an exporter of labour, told UNB that he submitted 12 passports to Md Kefaitullah Mamun, managing partner of Sonar Bangla Krishi Khamar Recruiting Agency, an influential member of the 15 recruiting agencies, for stamping visas a few days back. Initially, Kefaitullah had agreed to accept a fee of $150 per passport from Khan for stamping them with visas. But then he ratcheted it up by 10 times to $1500 and declined to return the passports, else. Read More: Bangladesh wants to boost cooperation with Libya to curb illegal migration Some other victims said the migrant workers are having a hard time reaching Libya on time, as the 15 recruiting agencies, capitalising on the hopes of young people trying to escape poverty and hemmed in by a lack of opportunity, are taking hold of the passports for a long time demanding extra money. Abul Kashem, a youth from Noakhali, said he submitted his passport through a recruiting agency three months back to go to Libya. "I'm not getting my passport back after my visa was stamped due to a melee between two agencies. My visa will expire on November 9. I don't know whether I will, finally, be able to go to Libya," he added. Like Kashem, many other people are not getting their passports back in time before their visas – (for Libya or elsewhere) expire. If they do not get their passports back with their visas, their journey to Libya will become uncertain. Read More: Libya seeks joint commission with Bangladesh to expand cooperation We tried repeatedly, but Kefaitullah simply could not be reached over the phone. He also did not respond to an SMS sent to his number. BAIRA President Mohammed Abul Basher said 55 percent of Bangladesh's foreign exchange earnings come from remittances sent by expatriates. "But regrettably, no one including the ministry concerned or its subordinate offices, is taking any step for the development of the labour migration sector." "After a long time, the opportunity to export Bangladeshi manpower to Libya has been created, but due to the syndicate of 15 recruiting agencies, labour migration to Libya has been hurt," Basher said. He said BAIRA, which has over 1600 members, already wrote to the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment to take action against this "syndicate." "We also wrote to the Libyan Embassy in Dhaka. And the mission has started delivering the passports submitted by other agencies." Read More: Detained Bangladeshis in Libya to be brought back: FM The BAIRA president said they want a "syndicate-free" environment in labour migration so that the workers can go abroad cheaply, or at least spend less money. He also said a delegation from Libya will come to Bangladesh very soon and it will talk with the embassy and related stakeholders to do what it takes to take Bangladeshi workers to Libya at a low cost. About the allegation that Sonar Bangla and other agencies are charging extra money by taking hold of passports, Abul Basher said they are informed about it and are trying to resolve this. "Md Kefaitullah Mamun, managing partner of Sonar Bangla Agency, has been inflicting fatal damage on labour migration. He has been cooperating with the syndicate, harming the sector," the BAIRA president said. Read More: Bangladeshi journalist, engineer to return home from Libya soon: FM State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam Sunday said Bangladesh supports legal migration to other countries and wants to enhance cooperation with Libya to curb illegal migration. He particularly sought the cooperation of Libya in contract farming of Bangladesh agro-entrepreneurs in Libya by leasing land there. Libyan Ambassador Abdulmutalib SM Suliman told him that his country wants to employ Bangladeshi doctors, nurses, technicians and engineers in Libya. The International Organization for Migration's Mobility Tracking survey in Libya identified 17,409 Bangladeshi nationals in the country between February and April 2022. Read More: Libya’s migrant roundup reaches 4,000 amid major crackdown Mobility Tracking in Libya gathers data through key informant interviews at both the municipality and community level on a bi-monthly basis. Of the total migrants identified by key informants in the country in February and April 2022, Bangladeshi migrants made up only three percent of total migrants in the country; however, Bangladeshi nationals accounted for 34 percent of all migrants, including refugees, from South Asia and the Middle East. Ninety-one percent of Bangladeshi migrants used air travel as their means of transportation to Libya. In addition, the average cost of their migration was $2,423. Fifty-four percent of Bangladeshi migrants were identified in western Libya. However, the highest concentration was in Benghazi (33 percent) in the east, followed by Tripoli (20 percent) and Misrata (13 percent) in the west. Read More: Major General Shamim new Ambassador to Libya Turkey was a transit country to reach Libya for more than a third of Bangladeshi migrants (34 percent). Migrants transiting through the UAE and then Turkey reported paying more than those transiting through other countries.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government on Tuesday decided to release fifty percent of the security deposit paid by recruiting agencies, to help them pay wages and office rent.