Job opportunities for Bangladeshi workers began to shrink in South Korea, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry officials told New Age.

They said that Korean employers were more interested to hire workers from other countries.

Korean employers, they said, look for more skilled workers offered by other countries which also have cultural similarities with them.

South Korea, usually hired Bangladeshi workers only for its manufacturing sector, they said.

South Korea is showing no interest to widen the area of recruitments for the workers from Bangladesh, said EWOE Ministry officials on return from South Korea.

An EWOE Ministry delegation led by deputy secretary Md Akhteruzzaman was in Seoul last week to explore the job opportunities for Bangladeshi workers in South Korea and under the exercise, the visitors met officials at Human Resources Development Korea, in short HRD Korea.

On return home, Akhteruzzaman told New Age that they requested HRD Korea to hire Bangladeshi labourers for their construction and other sectors instead of limiting the opportunities for the workers from Bangladesh only to the manufacturing sector.

But, he said, that the Korean authorities showed no interest to widen the opportunities to other sectors for Bangladeshi workers.

South Korean employers, he said, prefer to hire workers from londontoto other countries that shared Korean food habits and lifestyle.

Currently, he said, approximately 15,000 Bangladeshi workers were working in South Korea.

Bangladeshis working in South Korea told the visiting Bangladesh delegation that Korean employers preferred to hire workers from countries that shared their food habits and lifestyle which helps cut down cost of living of the hired workers.

According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, 475 Bangladeshi workers got jobs in South Korea in the first seven months of the current year.

In 2016, a total of 1,689 Bangladeshis went to South Korea, down from 2,369 in 2015, the BMET data show.

Asked why South Korea’s worker recruitment from Bangladesh declined, BMET director general Salim Reza told New Age that South Korea has its ‘own policy’ of hiring Bangladeshi workers in a ‘structured way’.

He, however, highly praised South Korean policy under which the migration cost for each worker does not exceed Tk 80,000 and a worker earns monthly wage double the cost of his migration.

Only skilled workers having proficiency in spoken Korean language get jobs in South Korea, said officials.

After selection by HRD Korea, they said, Bangladesh Overseas Employment Services Ltd sends the workers to South Korea.

migrationnewsbd.com/ob