Dhaka: Over Tk 5,000 crore was laundered from the country last year to buy visas for male migrant workers, says a new survey from Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).

The study reveals that a total of Tk 5,234 crore was spent in buying visas for male workers going to the KSA, Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Singapore and Qatar while the total amount taken from migrant workers for visa purposes was Tk 16,873 crore.

The findings of the study titled, 'Governance in Labour Migration Process: Problems and Way Forward' were disseminated at a press conference at TIB conference room in the capital on Thursday.

TIB senior programme manager (research and policy division) Shahzada M Akram and programme manager Manzur-E-Khuda jointly presented the study findings.

Speaking at the press conference, TIB executive director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the money is being sent abroad through illegal channels. In many cases, the money Bangladeshi workers earn abroad is used to buy visas and that is why the country is losing remittance.

Citing the study findings, he said about 90 percent of Bangladeshi male workers fall victim to various forms of corruption in the process of going abroad for work.

The TIB chief said the visa trade is totally illegal in all countries and expressed the hope that the government will take effective steps to stop visa trade through proper diplomacy with foreign countries.

The TIB study found gross corruption and irregularities in every step of the labour migration process, showing that the Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry approved 61,122 applications in 2016 while aspirants had to pay Tk 13,000 to Tk 15,000 in bribe each for getting approval from the ministry.

Migrant workers had to pay Tk 100-200 as bribe for approval of each application from the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), which processed 7,57,731 applications in 2016.

Every applicant also paid Tk 5,000 to 1,000 for getting clearance from police.

Observing that the country's labour migration is controlled by brokers, the study said communication between aspiring migrant workers and the registered recruiting agencies is often absent here.

As visa processing is a complex and time-consuming issue, migrant workers depend on brokers at grassroots level and they pay money to them though installments.

Since labour migration is a complicated process in Bangladesh, people fall victim to scams when they want to go abroad for works, Iftekharuzzaman said. 

There is no specific national labour migration strategy in the country, he said, which is why formulation of a long-term strategy is crucial in this regard.

To improve governance and check corruption in the migration sector, the TIB recommended amending the Overseas Employment and Migrants Act 2013 to make it effective, introducing a one-stop service at BMET to provide single visa clearance, increasing capacity of the labour wing of the ministry, enlisting brokers under the recruiting agencies and raising awareness about migration issues.