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Published : 06 Jul 2025, 02:01 AM
Delowar Hossain Patwari, a former migrant worker from Chandpur who spent five years in Saudi Arabia, returned to Bangladesh to open a grocery shop. When the business failed to take off, he left again -- this time for Kuwait.
But his trip to the Middle Eastern country in May cost him far more than expected, nearly Tk 700,000, a staggering figure considering what official records say the cost should be.
A similar story came from Iqbal Hossain of Cumilla, who travelled to Kuwait in June.
“I paid around Tk 650,000 to an agent. I even borrowed Tk 200,000 from a local cooperative. I found work here, but what I paid is many times the real cost,” he said.
Kuwait, a long-preferred Gulf destination for Bangladeshi migrant workers, had all but closed its visa channels for over a decade.
According to Bangladesh’s Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), just 4,212 workers went to Kuwait in 2007, the year the visa halt began.
The following years saw numbers plummet: 319 in 2008, 10 in 2009, 48 in 2010, and by 2013, only six Bangladeshis entered Kuwait on work visas.
This restrictive environment opened the door for rampant exploitation. As visa approvals became limited and required special permission, a black market for permits flourished, pushing costs to several times their actual value.
In 2024, the situation seemed to improve as 33,031 Bangladeshis secured jobs in Kuwait. But by February this year, only 4,962 had made the journey.
Behind these numbers lie a shadow economy of brokers, visa sellers, and kickbacks that has driven up the real cost for workers.
“Since 2007, Kuwait’s normal visa channels for Bangladeshis have been largely inactive. Workers had to rely on special approvals. Visa traders exploited this loophole to demand inflated sums,” said expatriate businessman and community leader Shafiqul Islam Babul.
For more than a decade, Bangladeshi workers had only access to limited-category permits, with the coveted Ahli/Shoun visa, Kuwait’s top-tier employment visa, completely unavailable during that period, he added.
Another expatriate businessman, Mohammad Bilal Hossain, said Kuwait technically has no fixed price for a labour visa.
“If a company genuinely requires workers, they’re supposed to cover visa fees, air tickets, and associated costs,” he said.
However, the reality differs sharply.
The official ceiling for overseas recruitment to Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait, is set between Tk 115,000 and Tk 120,000, said Mosharrof Hossain, acting assistant director of the Joypurhat District Employment and Manpower Office.
He said actual expenses should vary based on the recruitment channel.
Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL), the state-run recruitment agency, calculates costs based on specific needs: recruitment fees, visa processing, medical checks, and airfare.
But in Kuwait, the actual processing cost is nominal.
“The visa process costs three Kuwaiti dinars, and embassy attestation costs another three,” said expatriate activist Abdus Saleh.
“That totals just six dinars, less than Tk 2,500 in Bangladeshi currency.”
After arrival, employers typically spend an additional 250 dinars on work permits and residency costs.
“But this Tk 2,500 visa,” Saleh said, “is sold by agents for as much as 2,000 Kuwaiti dinars -- almost Tk 800,000.”
Local media and expatriate groups have long warned of such inflated costs, often driven by informal brokers operating across both ends of the migration chain.
“Compared with other South Asian countries, Bangladeshis pay the highest migration costs,” said Hebju Miah, joint secretary of the Bangladesh Press Club in Kuwait.
“That’s because a powerful syndicate of Bangladeshi visa brokers is monopolising the market.”
Efforts to regulate the system have been under way, said Mohammad Abul Hossain, labour minister at the Bangladesh Embassy in Kuwait.
“We now receive nearly 450 visa attestation requests daily,” he said.
“About a third of these are for skilled workers, a shift from earlier patterns when most applications were for unskilled labour.”
To curb malpractice, the embassy now requires employers or their registered agents to appear in person for attestation.
“But our role doesn’t end there. We monitor to ensure that no Bangladeshi worker suffers later,” he added.
Still, the damage from the unregulated grey market remains significant.
Joint Secretary AZM Nurul Haque, who heads the Monitoring and Enforcement wing of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, said his department is aware of the cost disparities.
“Costs vary by destination, but we regularly receive complaints of overcharging. We’ve launched awareness campaigns to address this, and we act firmly on specific complaints,” he said.
He urged victims to come forward with clear details on who took the money, when, and how much.
“With that information, we can take immediate action and offer redress.”
Repeated calls to Expatriates’ Welfare Advisor Asif Nazrul seeking comments went unanswered.
As the demand for foreign jobs continues to grow and the Kuwait market cautiously reopens, thousands of Bangladeshis remain vulnerable to debt, deception, and a costly journey.
