Thanks to falling global demand for apparel amidst the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the flow of outbound apparel workers from Bangladesh to Jordan more than halved in the last fiscal year (FY) than the previous FY.
Reports claimed this while adding according to Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL), only 7,014 garment workers were sent to Jordan in FY ’22-23, significantly lower than the 15,735 workers deployed in FY ’21-22 while adding the decline in demand for workers in Jordan’s apparel industry can be attributed to the aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, resulting in reduced export orders from the United States and the European Union.
The economic repercussions of the war led employers in Jordan to scale back recruitment efforts, negatively impacting the inflow of workers into their factories, explained Dr. Mallick Anwar Hossain, the managing director of BOESL.
The decrease in worker outflow has also affected remittance inflows from Jordan.
Bangladeshis employed in Jordan sent home US $ 127.87 million in remittances during FY ’22-23, compared to US $ 143.23 million in FY ’21-22, as per Bangladesh Bank data. Since 2010, BOESL, the sole state-owned recruitment agency, has facilitated the deployment of 94,787 workers to Jordan’s labour-receiving sector.
Historical data from the agency reveals that 5,549 workers were sent in FY ’20-21, 7,463 in 2019-20, and 9,494 in 2018-19.
