Unravelling the vicious cycle of recruitment: labour migration from Bangladesh to the Gulf States
The influx of foreign workers to the Gulf countries over recent decades has created a unique situation in that region, with the majority of the labour force comprising non-nationals. This paper examines the recruitment processes of migrants from Bangladesh and their varied outcomes in terms of working conditions and workers’ rights in the country of destination. The author starts by considering the search for a ‘Bhalo’ (or good) visa providing a contextual analysis in order to understand the context of the migration decision-making process and migrants’ experiences.
The paper then moves on to examine ‘Alo-Andhare’ (or twilight) that examines the amount and quality of information that a migrant has to process his/her overseas migration. It seeks to address the ‘how’ part of migration by examining experiences of migrants at the different stages of migration, from looking for overseas employment opportunities through the actual migration process. Finally a section on ‘Pawa-Napawa’ (or benefits and losses) – examines impacts of migration. This part of the paper focuses on changes that have occurred as a result of migration, what influences it has had on the lives of the migrants and their families, and to what extent the recruitment process affects these outcomes. Policy recommendations include:
- the Government must put in place simpler and more transparent procedures with regard to
recruitment for overseas jobs, improve information dissemination about these procedures
and allow public access to the results of inspections and audits of the private recruiting
agencies - NGOs and/or the banking sector could start schemes to offer migrant workers
various preferential loan facilities, such as pre-departure loans, housing loans and small
business loans - to safeguard migrant workers’ rights, Diplomatic Missions abroad could run Migrant Welfare Centres in those countries where there are more than 50,000 Bangladeshi workers.
