The government has taken a minimalist approach to protecting job markets abroad with its efforts limited only to requesting the host governments to employ Bangladeshi workers as several hundred thousand workers have already returned home after losing jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thousands more of Bangladeshi workers abroad are also at risk of losing jobs amid an economic downturn in the host countries as the disease has continued spreading in most of them, officials and experts said.

Trafficking in and safety of job seekers abroad, female workers in particular, have remained challenges for the governments in both sending and receiving countries as the Bangladesh government has taken a programme to observe International Migrants Day today.

‘Challenges, uncertainties and scopes in the post-pandemic job markets abroad will be different from the pre-pandemic conditions. But there are no efforts here to face these situations,’ Professor CR Abrar of the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit at Dhaka University told New Age on Tuesday.

At least 3,00,000 workers have recently returned home losing jobs abroad, while the government may have to bring back at least 10,000 more jobless workers from Lebanon soon, said a senior government official.

Several hundred Bangladeshi workers in Beirut on December 14 staged a demonstration demanding arrangements for taking them back home as many workers have become jobless in the country, according to Mohammad Nasir, a Bangladeshi worker in Lebanon.

The total overseas employment was also on a decline in last three years — from 1,008,525 in 2017 to 734,181 in 2018, to 700,159 in 2019 and to 181,218 until May 2020, according to expatriate welfare and employment ministry data.

The remittance was US$13,527 million in 2017, US$15,545 million in 2018, US$18,355 million in 2019 and US$6,965 million till May 2020, according to Bangladesh Bank data.

An estimated 81 million jobs have been lost in the Asia-Pacific region amid the pandemic and unemployment in the region could reach 5.7 per cent by the end of 2020, a considerable increase from the pre-pandemic 4.4 per cent in 2019, the International Labour Organisation has said in a new report titled Asia-Pacific Employment and Social Outlook 2020: Navigating the crisis towards a human-centred future of work, which was released on Wednesday.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Malaysia are traditional job markets for a large segment of about 10 million Bangladesh workers abroad.

Depressed economic prospects — due to conflicts in non-Gulf countries and fluctuations in the oil price, extreme inflation and large fiscal deficits in Gulf countries — are likely to keep the Asia-Pacific region’s employment situation unsteady, according to World Employment and Social Outlook 2020.

The demand for workers is linked to the demand for goods and services, and will depend on changes in policies and mechanisms for the economic recovery and overcoming health risks in the host countries, Abrar said, adding, ‘But we have no preparations to take advantage of these changes.’

There will be demands for trained health workers, nurses and medical laboratory technicians in many traditional and non-traditional job markets, he said and added that several Gulf and non-Gulf countries, including the KSA and Kuwait, have been implementing either feminisation or a nationalisation plan with employing local staff.

But, he pointed out, they would require trained caregivers and domestic helps at homes.

Bangladesh could take advantage of this new demand by imparting skills training, based on appropriate modules, and training in soft skills, including basic Arabic and English language skills, he said.

The government has set up 30 labour wings in Bangladesh missions in 28 countries to extend services to the workers, including in Australia, Switzerland, Japan, Spain, Greece, Russia, Italy, the KSA, the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Malaysia.      

‘Labour wings are set up in some developed countries to create fancy postings for people from privileged groups while missions in many countries are badly under-resourced,’ Abrar said, questioing what protection and services the labour wing would provide to workers in countries like Australia where structural redress mechanism is strong even for people with irregular status.

Most of the Bangladeshi workers go abroad without any training in appropriate skills compatible with the needs in the workplaces abroad, and trafficking in and lack of safety of female workers continue to remain a major challenge for the government, officials in different Bangladesh missions abroad said.

Bangladesh ambassador to Bahrain Nazrul Islam said that the workers not with a proper job placement would be driven