Published in The Financial Express on Sunday, 2 March 2014.
Some airlines reducing flights due to fall in country’s manpower export
Shah Alam Nur
Some airlines – both local and foreign ones — have been cutting the number of their international flights following a drastic fall in Bangladesh’s manpower export over the months, the sector insiders said.
The airlines had been doing good business carrying Bangladeshi migrant workers. But manpower export from the country dropped significantly in 2013 compared to 2012 because of the restrictions on recruitment of Bangladeshis by some Middle Eastern countries, sources said.
They also said all the airlines reduced the number of flights as they have been counting a huge amount of losses for want of passengers.
An official of Emirates Airlines– a leading foreign company told the FE “In recent times we have cut seven weekly flights for shortage of passengers”.
In a week the Emirates Airlines had 21 flights from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) but now they are operating only 14 flights as a cost cutting measure, he added.
An official of a private airlines told the FE that some Middle East countries imposed restrictions on recruitment of Bangladeshi workers compelling them to reduce the number of flights.
Currently everyday around 27 airlines including the national flag carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines has been handling thousands of passengers both local and foreigners at HSIA, he informed.
According to Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), an estimated 409,253 Bangladeshi workers migrated to foreign countries in the calendar year 2013 as against the figure of 607,798 in 2012.
Private recruiters blamed the poor diplomatic manoeuvring for failure to convince the manpower recruiting countries to lift restrictions on hiring Bangladeshi workers.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had been the three major destinations for Bangladeshi migrant workers but those countries imposed restrictions on hiring Bangladeshis in 2006, 2008 and 2012 respectively.
The BMET data show in 2013 the UAE had hired only 14,241 Bangladeshis, Saudi Arabia 12,664 and Kuwait only 6.
Secretary General of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), the main platform of private recruiting agencies Ali Haider Chowdhury told the FE “Due to the lack of proper diplomatic manoeuvring the country’s manpower exports fell drastically last year”.
He said after a ban for four years since 2009, Malaysia recently reopened its market for Bangladeshi workers but in 2013 it hired only 3,853 workers under a government to government (GtoG) arrangement.
Mostafizur Rahman, Executive director of country’s leading think-tank Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) told the FE “If the downtrend in manpower export continues country’s foreign currency reserves will be affected shortly.”
He said the government wants to send foreign job seekers through G-to-G system but it is not possible.
An official of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry told the FE “We are not worried about the recent fall in manpower export.”