Bangladesh Advances Reforms to Curb Exploitation in Migrant Recruitment

Bangladesh is making progress in tackling the longstanding challenge of fair recruitment for migrant workers, despite persistent obstacles such as high recruitment costs and entrenched practices. The latest Labour Migration in Asia: Fair Recruitment, Training, and Development 2025 report—jointly published by the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the International Labour Organization (ILO)—notes both the challenges and advances in the country’s governance of labour migration.

High Costs of Recruitment

Surveys conducted under a standard methodology by the ILO and World Bank reveal that while recruitment costs are falling in some Asian countries of origin, Bangladeshi workers continue to face disproportionately high expenses. These costs often lead to debt burdens, forcing migrants into exploitative work conditions abroad.

Bangladesh’s reliance on overseas labour migration is significant—millions of workers contribute remittances vital to the national economy. However, the report stresses that unless recruitment practices are made transparent and fair, workers will continue to bear heavy financial risks.

International Labour Standards as a Guiding Framework

The report recommends that Bangladesh align its labour migration governance with international standards, particularly the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1991 (C181). The convention states that private employment agencies should not charge workers fees or related costs, a principle further reinforced by the ILO General Principles and Operational Guidelines for Fair Recruitment and the Definition of Recruitment Fees and Costs (2019).

The guidelines allow only narrow exceptions, and only when these are demonstrably in the interest of the worker and developed in consultation with both employer and worker organizations.

Promising Bilateral Measures

One of the positive steps highlighted is Bangladesh’s approach to bilateral labour migration agreements that shift recruitment costs from workers to employers.

A notable example is the 2018 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Bangladesh and the Republic of Korea, which established clear cost-sharing arrangements for items such as language tests, passports, visas, medical examinations, and airfare.

ILO migration expert Ratna Mathai-Luke emphasized that transparency in recruitment costs is essential but requires rigorous implementation to prevent backsliding into exploitative practices.

Persistent Challenges in Certain Corridors

Despite progress, difficulties remain, particularly in the Bangladesh–Malaysia migration corridor. Since 2007, the corridor has been plagued with issues related to recruitment fraud, overcharging, and inadequate worker protections.

The government has responded with new legal frameworks and awareness campaigns to inform workers about decent work rights and safe migration pathways, but the report notes that implementation gaps remain a concern.

Key Reforms in Bangladesh

In recent years, Bangladesh has rolled out several significant reforms to address unfair recruitment:

• Amendment of the Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Migrants Act, 2013 in November 2024 to include recruitment sub-agents and intermediaries, expanding accountability across the recruitment chain.

• Amendment of the Private Recruitment Agents’ Code of Conduct Rule 2025, incorporating sub-agents for greater transparency.

• Digitization of recruitment processes via the Recruitment Agents Information System (RAIMS), introduced in 2019 and now mandatory, with over 2,000 recruiting agencies using the system to ensure traceability and compliance.

• Implementation of fair recruitment practices through the ILO’s Fair Recruitment Initiative, following a pilot programme in Qatar’s construction sector (2018–2021). This initiative produced striking results:

  • A 92% drop in the average migration cost for Bangladeshi workers.

  • 93% of workers recruited after the pilot reported no debt, a significant shift from earlier patterns of debt-bondage migration.

Towards Safer and Fairer Migration

The report underscores that while challenges persist, Bangladesh’s reforms represent meaningful progress toward protecting migrant workers from exploitation. Enhanced accountability, digitization, and alignment with international standards are gradually reshaping recruitment practices.

Still, sustained monitoring, enforcement, and international cooperation will be critical to ensure that workers are not left to shoulder the costs of migration, but instead can pursue opportunities abroad safely and fairly.