With barely a week to go, some 200,000 more Bangladeshis have been lined up to be sent abroad with employment taking the total tally in this year to 1.1 million.
Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam came up with the information while talking to BSS on Sunday.
According to him, "The overseas job markets are witnessing a boom and 9,90,728 Bangladeshi workers have already gone abroad till December 21 this year."
The minister said the government has taken various initiatives to develop skills of people seeking job abroad owing to interest from several developed countries who want workers through legal channels.
"We are very much cautious about human trafficking as the government is working on it. We are providing foreign language training to our overseas job seekers at the training centres across the country," he noted.
The minister, however, said social awareness is essential to ensure safe immigration as many workers are going abroad with lack of knowledge and orientation.
He emphasised overseas employment is very important in attaining the country’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030.
He also stated that Japan showed eagerness to recruit skilled workers from Bangladesh and a Memorandum of Understanding will be signed between the two countries within a few days.
In 2016, a total of 7,57,731 Bangladeshi workers went abroad with job while the number was 5,55,881 in the previous year.
At present, about 13 million Bangladeshi workers are employed in 162 countries and they remit annually more than US$ 15 billion.