Manpower recruitment agencies have sought extension of the deadline for payment of security money for two more years, as they are facing financial crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic.
To this effect, they formally applied to the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment on Sunday.
The security money is kept by the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) from the manpower recruiters while giving recruiting licences to them.
However, the ministry last year returned 50 per cent of the security money to manpower recruiting agencies so that they could handle the financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
In this regard, the ministry issued an order in April 2020. The money was returned to the recruiters without any interest for one year.
However, the recruiters - whose licences remained cancelled and security money confiscated by the authorities - were not entitled to this fund.
The decision was then taken by the ministry following a request from Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA).
The manpower recruiting agencies, in the formal application on Sunday, mentioned that the recruiters could not pay their office rent and employee salaries as their businesses remained closed due to imposing travel bans by all destination countries to control the coronavirus spread.
But the committee of BAIRA is currently dissolved as the validity of the committee expired recently.
In these circumstances, a group of manpower recruiters under the banner of 'Shommilito Gonotantrik Jot' and the Female Workers Recruiting Agencies Association of Bangladesh met the Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad and made the request of time extension of the security money payment.
They said they had incurred huge losses last year as they failed to send workers abroad because of the pandemic.
They are still struggling hard as the pandemic shows no sign of slowing down both at home and abroad, they mentioned.
So, recruiters are now unable to return the security money, they added.
Presently, more than 1,800 manpower recruiting agencies are operating their business in the country.
They have sent about 13 million workers to different countries, especially in the Middle East, since 1976, according to official data of BMET.
