By IANS,
Dhaka : Bangladesh’s business chambers have pledged jobs for thousands of workers being repatriated from Arab countries in an effort to ease the blow to the economy that has workers’ remittances as a major earning source.
Pledges were made by leaders of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Thursday as a plane brought back home bodies of four workers who had drowned on Greek shores in a bid to escape being brought home.
The four were among the 65,000 Bangladeshis, mostly construction workers, in Libya that is witnessing a civil war like situation.
Bangladesh has millions working across nations in the Middle East and Northern Africa.
Last year, the expatriates remitted $11 billion to Bangladesh, of which $100 million came from Libya.
FBCCI president A.K. Azad urged the business community, trade bodies, and stakeholders to rehabilitate the returning expatriate Bangladeshis.
He said they deserved support from the businesses during such a crisis as they were “the lifeline to Bangladesh’s economy”, the New Age newspaper said.
Some of the business leaders taking part in the discussion made specific promises. Among them, Chittagong Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Monwara Hakim promised employment for 100 people and FBCCI director Harun Ur Rashid spoke of jobs for 500 people.
Azad announced the chambers would raise a fund to provide the Bangladeshis repatriated from the trouble-torn Arab world with immediate financial support and also urged his fellow business leaders to come forward to lend support to these hapless people.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue’s distinguished fellow Debapriya Bhattacharya said that the current situation in the Middle East and North Africa might increase poverty and decrease the value of money.
The people being forced to return home will spend from their savings, adding a pressure on the food market, which in turn will lead to a rise in poverty, he explained.
He said the expatriates had been contributing to the country’s foreign currency reserve by remitting their earnings but, in the current situation, the remittance inflow would decline by about $100 million, which would decrease the value of taka against the foreign currencies.