Garment makers have moved to prepare a comprehensive data on the profiles of foreign nationals working in the country on safety concerns, people familiar with the development said. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) on October 07 issued a circular requesting all its member factories to provide information about foreigners who are working in their units. The data, which the BGMEA has sought, include name of the foreigners, their passport number, nationality, contact number, residential address, name of the institutions and the arrival date, said the people. “The move has been taken to prepare a data base on how many foreigners are currently working in the country’s largest foreign currency-earning sector,” BGMEA President Siddiqur Rahman told the FE. The move comes against the backdrop of recent murder of two foreign citizens in the country. Different foreign missions and countries have already issued security alert to their citizens, advising them to take extra caution in their movement in Bangladesh. The first incident of killing an Italian citizen took place in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone in Gulshan on September 28 while a Japanese national was killed by miscreants in northern Rangpur district on October 03. The step also follows a request from the country’s law enforcement agencies as they are preparing a list of foreign personnel working and staying in the country to ensure their security, according to the BGMEA. The government has also tightened security, especially in the city’s posh Gulshan and Baridhara areas, where the majority of diplomats and foreigners lives. Besides, the people said, some foreign buyers have also cancelled their visit to Bangladesh and asked their local suppliers to meet with them outside the country for business negotiations over security concerns. Currently, around 0.4 million foreign nationals, mostly from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Taiwan, South Korea and some European and African countries are working in Bangladesh. Most of the foreigners are working particularly in the readymade garment (RMG) sector, IT and other manufacturing industries. Three government agencies-Boards of Investment, NGO Affairs Bureau and Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA)-issue work permits for the foreigners. However, there is no such compiled list of foreigners working in Bangladesh due to lack of coordination among the government agencies concerned. According to BoI officials, around 22,000 foreigners are working in the country with valid work permits. Finance Minister AMA Muhith last month said each year, foreigners, who serve the country, take home $4.0 billion in what can be termed reverse remittances as payment against their job in the absence of scarcity of local skilled manpower. Some 16,000-19,000 foreign individuals are working in different industrial units in the country’s textiles and clothing sector. They hold such posts as merchandiser, designers, marketing, technicians at washing and dying units, according to industry people. Abdus Salam Murshedy, a former BGMEA president, noted that some 15,000 foreigners are working in the country’s textile and clothing sector, including buying houses, dying, washing, accessories and other garment units. He, however, said that the number of foreigners working in the garment sector has declined in recent times, as youths are joining the sector with technical and vocational education, particularly related to the RMG sector. “As the country targets $50 billion export income, the number of foreign experts will also increase because of the short supply of skilled manpower locally,” Mr Murshedy added.
