Remittances to Mena region fall 8%

The World Bank has said that despite an 8% decline in remittance flows to the Middle East and North Africa region to $32bn (Dhs117.44bn) last year, from $34.8bn in 2008, figures are expected to bounce back 3.6% to $33.1bn this year, Emirates Business has reported. Remittances to the region are projected to increase further 4% next year to $34.4bn, according to the World Bank.
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Sensational Cases Expose Conditions Faced by Overseas Workers Throughout Asia

Last week, a Filipino woman working in Qatar as a maid gave birth on a flight from Bahrain to the Philippines, and then abandoned the child in the lavatory trash. She told officials she had become pregnant after being raped by her employer. Only a few weeks before, Sri Lankan physicians removed 24 nails and needles from a woman who had been working in Saudi Arabia. Saudi employers had hammered the nails into her body as punishment for complaining about her workload. She did not report the assault to Saudi officials for fear that her employers would prevent her from leaving.

Each year, inhabitants of the least-developed Asian countries pursue the economic benefits of overseas employment despite the high social cost at home and possibility of injury at the hands of employers abroad. Workers experience abuse along a spectrum, from being denied legal status and labor protections to enduring legally condoned and even legally abetted forms of physical and psychological abuse. Read more

BANGLADESH: Saviour, not slave

en Anderson of BBC has made a short documentary entitled "The Slaves of Dubai," visualising the heart-rending plight of South Asian workers who arrived in Dubai in the hope of alleviating their abject poverty, but ended up becoming virtually bonded labour.

These modern slaves include a large number of our migrant workers, who are working there as construction labour in inhuman conditions. Anderson tried to interview one such migrant worker from Bangladesh who, being unable to express the level and depth of his woes in words, only broke down in tears during the interview.

The Daily Star report carried on August 30 said at least 44 Bangladeshi workers have been languishing in the United Arab Emirates for the last five months after they sued their employers for not paying wages for nearly one year. The workers, living in two camps in Sharjah, can neither find new jobs nor have money to return home.
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Rainy-day oil funds see Mideast through downturn

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The Middle East has weathered the global economic downturn better than other parts of the world because its energy exporters were able to tap billions of dollars in oil profits collected when prices were booming, the International Monetary Fund said Sunday.

By reaching into those reserves, major oil producers like Saudi Arabia shielded their economies from the worst of the slump by maintaining government spending and injecting liquidity into domestic banking systems rattled by the credit crisis.

Doing so not only blunted the impact of the downturn on their own economies, but also helped shore up the economies of neighboring countries without large oil reserves, the IMF said. Read more

BANGLADESH: Fears for social stability as migrant workers return

DHAKA, 26 March 2009 (IRIN) - Abdul Monsur has good reason to worry. After losing his job as a pipe welder in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) he was deported to Bangladesh.

[See also: BANGLADESH: Global financial crunch set to cut remittances]

“I sold my land and borrowed almost 1.75 lakh taka (US$2,550) from my relatives to get this job,” the father-of-four, who paid more than $3,500 to a local job recruiter six months earlier to secure the job, told IRIN.

“I still haven’t been able to pay off the debt,” he said.

Such stories are not uncommon. Layoffs and forced repatriation of Bangladeshi workers from the Middle East and Malaysia (the two primary destinations for Bangladeshi workers) are increasing at an alarming rate. Read more

SWIFT Middle East community pioneers remittance solution

Published on 10 April 2007

Introducing a special interest session on SWIFT's solution for exchange houses and remittances at the SWIFT Regional Conference Middle East, Alex Bagin, relationship manager, Commercial Channels and Developing Markets, SWIFT, drew delegates' attention to the fact that the Middle East region is one of the main sources of global remittances.

Jose Antonio Garcia, Payments Systems Development Group, The World Bank, provided supporting evidence. The Gulf countries, he noted, are all represented in the top 20 remitting countries, with Saudi Arabia second in the world after the USA.

The impact of such remittances on the economies of receiving countries can be significant. Garcia noted that in certain countries, inbound remittances account for over 20% of GDP. He estimated that there is a 10-20% growth in remittances annually, though a large minority of the volume is unreported as it goes through unofficial channels. [Read More]