The inflow of remittance from expatriate Bangladeshis hit a record $15bn in the last fiscal year, up by over a billion dollars from two years ago.
As the Dhaka Tribune launches a multi-part investigation into human trafficking today, we need also to remember the critical importance of remittances to our economy.
Were it not for official failures in facilitating legal channels for workers seeking to go to labour-importing nations, it is likely fewer people would be driven into the arms of traffickers.
This neglect reflects a failure to properly value the significance of remittances.
Bangladesh receives the eighth biggest amount of remittance income in the world. These amounts have tended to grow consistently and flow in regularly during both good and bad economic climates.
They have proved invaluable in helping to alleviate poverty, raise living standards, and to develop the rural economy. Remittances far outweigh foreign aid and represent a bigger net inflow of foreign currency than our export industries. The Bangladesh Bank estimates they account for two-thirds of the country’s growing foreign exchange reserves.
Yet, given their importance to assisting the pace of progress towards attaining middle-income status, it remains unacceptable that migrant workers are often undervalued.
The government must do more to improve the treatment many migrant workers are subjected to at airports and to improve their representation by labour attaches.
It should also look at ways other countries have used to leverage the goodwill represented by remittances, by encouraging new investment opportunities so overseas workers can directly invest in development in addition to supporting families at home.
Maximising the way we utilise and encourage remittances can help the economy to create more high value jobs within Bangladesh, so fewer people will seek to leave in the first place.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
