Bangladesh’s overseas job market is contracting at the fastest pace in years, with manpower export plunging by nearly 30% amid widespread corruption, collapsing labour corridors and stalled diplomacy – despite hopes that the interim government led by Prof Muhammad Yunus would reverse the slide.
Following the student-led 5 August uprising that ousted the authoritarian Sheikh Hasina government, many manpower exporters expected the Nobel laureate’s global profile to help unlock new opportunities abroad.
But while several advisers have repeatedly spoken of migrant rights and welfare, no concrete policy action has followed.
A sudden and sharp downturn
According to BMET, 1,011,869 Bangladeshis migrated for work in 2024 – 95% of them to just five destinations: Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Qatar, Singapore and the UAE. The total is almost 30% lower than the 1,307,890 workers who went abroad in 2023.
The decline is accelerating.
In January 2025, 97,873 workers migrated; by February the number had fallen to 62,442 – down 20% in a single month.
Three major labour markets – Malaysia, Oman and the UAE – are now closed. Meanwhile, recruitment has slowed in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and Bahrain has not hired Bangladeshi workers since 2017.
Despite government attempts to open new labour corridors, progress remains limited.
Experts say the immediate priority should be repairing existing relationships.
Major destinations collapsing one by one
Oman took over 125,000 Bangladeshi workers in 2023, but when the market closed in 2024, only 358 could go.
The UAE hired around 100,000 Bangladeshis in 2023, but only 47,000 in 2024. In the first two months of this year, just 1,150 workers migrated there.
Bahrain has not hired a single Bangladeshi worker since 2017.
Despite a global boom in demand for skilled workers, Bangladesh sends very few. South Korea planned to recruit 10,000 workers from Bangladesh in 2023, but only 4,496 qualified.
From 2024 until now, just 2,918 workers have gone. Japan remains similarly inaccessible due to language and skills deficits.
Dr Tasneem Siddiqui, acting executive director of the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), said, “The government claims Bangladesh sends workers to 168 countries, but in reality, 95% of workers go to just six. The rest receive only nominal numbers – sometimes just 2 to 3/4%.”
On Malaysia, she said, “Malaysia’s labour market closed due to syndicates involving Bangladeshi and Malaysian recruiting agencies. Many workers arrived only to discover they had no jobs. The government must negotiate with Malaysia quickly to solve this issue.”
Overdependence becoming dangerous
BMET data shows that of the 1,011,869 workers who migrated in 2024, about 966,000 went to Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Qatar, Singapore and the UAE – 89% of the total. Experts warn that relying on so few destinations poses a serious economic risk.
If any of these countries shift migration policies, Bangladesh’s manpower export – and remittance inflow – could suffer a sudden shock.
Even in the major destinations, recruitment is slowing.
In the UAE, the construction slowdown has sharply reduced hiring. Saudi Arabia’s demand has eased after the country recruited 600,000 Bangladeshis last year.
Many Bangladeshis had entered Saudi Arabia on “free visas” – arranged without contracts or guaranteed work.
Many now survive on irregular jobs once or twice a week, while even contract workers often receive lower-than-promised wages.
Saudi Arabia is also diversifying its labour intake and increasingly hiring from Pakistan and India. Demand is growing for skilled workers, yet Bangladesh continues to send mainly unskilled and low-skilled migrants.
Qatar’s demand has shrunk since the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
While Bangladesh sent 24,447 workers in 2022, 56,148 in 2023 and 74,422 in 2024, numbers have already begun falling this year.
Singapore’s labour market remains difficult to access because it prioritises skilled workers, yet thousands still migrate each year: 64,383 in 2022; 53,265 in 2023; and 56,878 in 2024.
Corruption at the heart of the crisis
An investigation by this correspondent found that corruption – rather than external shocks alone – lies at the root of Bangladesh’s manpower export collapse.
Recruiting agencies routinely inflate migration costs, ignoring government regulations. The high fees push many migrants into irregular work abroad just to recover expenses, damaging Bangladesh’s reputation and prompting foreign governments to tighten restrictions.
Agencies also prioritise unskilled workers, who are easier to deceive and more willing to pay large fees in the hope of going abroad.
Many workers travelling with fake appointment letters or forged documents are from this group.
This has entrenched a cycle of exploitation that has begun eroding trust in Bangladeshi workers globally. Dr Tasneem said Malaysia’s shutdown was a clear example of this corruption-driven crisis, noting that syndicates on both sides profited while workers were left jobless on arrival.
What lies ahead
With key markets closed, recruitment falling, and foreign confidence waning, Bangladesh risks a prolonged contraction in its manpower export sector unless diplomatic, regulatory and skill-development efforts are urgently revitalised.
For now, the combination of corruption, shrinking opportunities and weak oversight continues to push the country’s migrant labour sector deeper into uncertainty.
Bd-pratidin English/TR
