From correspondents in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 11:30 AM IST

Recruiting agencies in Bangladesh send around Taka 40 billion ($610 million) every year through illegal channels to the Gulf region and Southeast Asia, where millions of its workers are employed, in the absence of an authorised business mechanism.

The amount has been estimated considering the migration of around 400,000 workers every year and over Taka 100,000 paid in commission for each to the countries where they are employed.

Other businesses are allowed to open letter of credits (LCs) for importing products. But there is no such mechanism for manpower business though it requires foreign currency in buying job demands and exploring new markets.

The recruiting agencies send the money through 'hundi', an informal South Asian mechanism for domestic and international money transfers, which has been banned by the Bangladesh government.

The payment goes mainly to pay commissions to their foreign counterparts, outsourcing companies and sometimes even the employers, industry insiders told The Daily Star Sunday.

'Whether we accept it or not, the ground level reality is that every demand has to be purchased from foreign agents or employers. The situation is not unique for Bangladesh, rather it's global,' said an agent.

For example, each worker going to Malaysia spends around Tk 200,000. But the amount spent in Bangladesh for airfare, documentation fee, recruiting agents' fee and even the fee for the brokers, is only around Tk 100,000.

The rest is spent in Malaysia for paying the outsourcing companies and other authorities, which is a grey area, business insiders noted.

'The money spent in Malaysia is sent through hundi,' an agent said.

If the government had a mechanism of allowing recruiting agents a foreign currency quota as per their annual performances, it would add value to the services they provide in placing workers overseas.

A fact-finding mission of a human rights organisation in Malaysia, Tenaganita, in its recent report also revealed the anomalies. It said each Bangladeshi worker has to pay around Tk 100,000 to various government and non-government authorities in Malaysia for collecting job demand letters, their approvals and other documentation.

These agencies include the sub-agents who lobby the outsourcing companies, their officials and even some officials of the home ministry of Malaysia, the report noted.

In the case of the Gulf countries, it is a well-known fact that there exists a visa trading system. Either the recruiting agencies or the individual brokers buy visas from the agencies of those countries or employers at Tk 50,000 to Tk 150,000.

'The amount paid by Bangladeshi brokers for visas is more than that by many other manpower exporting countries as Bangladeshi workers have more demand of jobs,' said another recruiting agent.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)