Remittance face serious setback amid uprising in Libya

Dhaka, Mar 3 (UNB) - Country’s remittance earning that witnessed a balanced trend in recent months might face serious setback in the coming months amid recent uprising in Libya, which forced many Bangladeshi workers to return home.
The present crisis is likely to have further adverse impact on Bangladesh’s overseas labour market and balance of payment.
According to the leaders of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA)), over 80,000 Bangladeshis used to work in Libya in various types of job.
Bangladesh received remittances totaling Tk 68437.80 million in December 2010 with Bangladeshis in Libya sending Tk 3.5 million. The remittance from Libya was the highest in August, 2010 with Tk 6.9 million, according to Bangladesh Bank’s Monthly Economic Trends, January, 2011.
Wage earners’ remittance inflows increased slightly in January this year to US$ 970.54 million (Tk 68947.20 million) from US$ 969.10 million (Tk 68437.80 million) in December last year, according to Foreign Exchange Policy Department of Bangladesh Bank.
“Definitely, remittance inflow will drop significantly following the Libya crisis. It might impact on the overall economy of Bangladesh,” BAIRA president Abul Bashar told UNB Correspondent AKM Moinuddin over phone.
He said over 80,000 Bangladeshis, mostly technical and skilled, had been working in Libya. The workers from strife-torn Libya have started returning home and if this continues Bangladesh will be
deprived of huge amount of remittance.
Replying to a question, the BAIRA chief said they talked to the officials of some companies in Libya, who assured that they would take back their Bangladeshi workers once normalcy is restored in the
West African country.
Former BAIRA president Ghulam Mustafa said overall remittance inflow to the country would come down drastically if the present crisis in Libya and some other Middle-Eastern continues for long.
He said it will have serious impact on the country’s overall economy, including balance of payment situation and foreign exchange reserve.
He suggested forming a National Committee with representatives of Foreign and Labour ministries as well as other stakeholders to cope with the situation and explore new labour markets.
Replying to a query, Mustafa said the government should take immediate steps to arrange sending the returnee Bangladeshis from Libya to other friendly countries.
He informed that Kuwait has not been recruiting workers from Bangladesh for nearly eleven years while Saudi Arabia did not recruit Bangladeshis in the last seven years.
According to the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) analysis, the first half of the current fiscal has posed formidable challenges for the country in terms of the number of workers going abroad and remittance flow. Number of migrant workers has decreased by almost half compared to average figure for comparable periods of fiscals 2006-07 and 2007-08.
It said there has been a significant deceleration in the growth of remittance inflow to Bangladesh during the first five months (July-November) of current fiscal. Total remittance inflow declined
by 1.7 percent during the period compared to the same period of previous fiscal (2009-10).
END/UNB/AKM/