Jamil Mahmud

Private sector employers have to contribute 50 percent of their employees’ monthly instalments under the universal pension scheme, said a gazette from the finance ministry yesterday.

At least 9,194 undocumented Bangladeshi migrants have registered with the Bangladesh embassy in Greece as of August 1 for a regularisation programme of the Greek government, according to the Bangladesh mission in Athens.

Remittance earnings from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia -- Bangladesh’s biggest overseas labour market -- declined by 17.10 percent in last fiscal year amid growing concern over using unauthorised channels such as hundi by remitters.

With numerous job opportunities and the scope to earn a decent living, Japan has emerged as a lucrative labour market for skilled Bangladeshi migrant workers.

The government has not come up with any new measure in the proposed national budget to encourage remitters despite a sluggish growth in remittance inflow in the outgoing fiscal year.

Mohammad Shahadat, 29, was earning a decent living from his laundry in the Sudanese capital Khartoum until an armed conflict beginning on April 15 plunged the Northeast African country into a civil war.

Ali Sheikh had to leave home with his family after being confined there for around two weeks amidst a civil war in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

Recruitment of new Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia has been tainted by a number of irregularities, with a few dozen workers falling into trouble, which includes joblessness.

The labour market in the Maldives for new Bangladeshi workers has remained suspended for about three-and-a-half years now, despite Bangladesh’s continuous efforts to reopen it.

Supported by remittance, the families of Bangladeshi migrant workers are playing a crucial role in developing the country’s rural economy by not only purchasing goods, but also investing in different small-scale income generating opportunities, according to experts.

In the end, was the government’s austerity stance just lip service?

A year has passed since a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Bangladesh and Greece for the latter to recruit Bangladeshi migrant workers. However, Greece is yet to initiate the process.

Irregular migration of Bangladeshis to Italy by sea has almost doubled in a year, shows UN data.

Md Monir, a migrant worker, returned home from the United Arab Emirates with severe physical pain in June 2021.

Despite sending well over a million migrants abroad last year, Bangladesh is unlikely to get the desired remittance from them as almost four out of five of them were less skilled.

The country’s per capita external debt currently stands at more than double from what was seven years ago as both public and private sector foreign loans have seen an increase by this time.

The private sector’s foreign debt decreased by 4.3 per cent, or more than $1 billion, in the second quarter of the current fiscal year following Bangladesh Bank’s strict measures to control imports.

As Bangladesh sends tens of thousands of migrant workers abroad each year, scores return home prematurely after suffering various injuries or illnesses in the host countries

Bangladesh sent the highest number of migrant workers in its history in 2022 thanks to a surge in demand for labourers in the Middle Eastern countries but remittance receipts did not go up proportionately.  

Two of the government’s 28 Covid-19 stimulus packages saw a fresh injection of Tk 50,000 crore in the ongoing financial year, but only 4 per cent of the fund was disbursed between July and October.