The government will launch an online database of licensed manpower recruitment agencies next month (May) to help strengthen its monitoring system.
The Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) has directed the manpower recruiters to provide their necessary information to the Recruiting Agencies Information Management System (RAIMS) within April 30.
The BMET issued a circular in the middle of this month and asked the recruiters for providing their data to the RAIMS through the website - raims.bmet.gov.bd.
It also said if any recruiting agency does not include required information in the RAIMS, the agency might face interruption in receiving services.
Necessary information will be updated in the database on a regular basis that will help the government to monitor the recruiters' activities, officials said.
For example, if workers file complaints against any recruiter, the database will integrate the information, which will help the government to take necessary steps within a short period.
The database will also maintain a classification of the manpower recruiters based on their performance.
An official said despite the directive, only 258 recruiting agencies have so far been enlisted in the database.
Currently, about 1,600 authorised recruiting agencies are active in the country.
Md Shahidul Alam, director general of the BMET, said they had made a database of manpower recruiters, which will be launched in May. It will help the agency in many ways to regulate the recruiting agencies.
"We want transparency in the process of migration, so that workers do not face trouble in the migration cycle."
The database will help to bring the recruiters under a well-monitored system. The recruiters will face difficulties in receiving the BMET's services, if they do not come under the system, he added.
About 0.6-0.7 million workers go abroad from Bangladesh each year. The country has sent 13 million workers to different nations since 1976. Of them, 80 per cent went to the Middle-East, according to the BMET statistics.
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