Labour migration from Bangladesh to Russia — a destination traditionally untapped by Bangladeshi workers and authorities — has sharply gone up in recent years, despite the continued Russia–Ukraine war.
According to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training, 2,117 Bangladeshis have migrated to the Russia Federation in the first seven months of this year.
Russia, the huge country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, hired 1,014 Bangladeshi workers in 2024 while the figure was merely 36 in 2023.
Migration experts said that Russia, traditionally a territory uncharted by Bangladeshi workers, was explored in 2022.
In 2022, the Overseas Employment and Services Limited, the only government recruiting agency of Bangladesh for overseas employment, signed a memorandum of understanding with a Russian shipbuilding company and secured jobs for 88 workers.
However, now at least 25 private recruiting agencies are involved in labour migration from Bangladesh. Of them, Green Land Overseas, Runway International, Noakhali Overseas Ltd, Al Dakheel Overseas Ltd, and Banna Bijoy Overseas Ltd are a few major firms.
BMET officials said that the people who migrated from Bangladesh have mostly gone to Russia — in six trades — as general workers in addition to shipbuilding, hospitality, construction, welding and garment sectors.
The officials said that private agencies were now dominating the labour migration from Bangladesh to Russia.
Noakhali Overseas Ltd managing director Md Hannan said that Russia was hiring only skilled workers through them for the sectors like garment, construction, and hospitality.
‘We are receiving huge orders for skilled workers, but only 10 per cent of the trained workers can qualify to meet the orders,’ he said, adding that they were now imparting skill training to aspirant migrant workers.
Russia, he said, is a big market. The Bangladesh government should facilitate and monitor migration to that country.
Russian recruiters, he further disclosed, bear the migration cost so the processing cost was less than Tk1 lakh for each worker, while each worker can earn minimum $620 monthly, which is considered a handsome remuneration for Bangladeshi workers.
Runway International proprietor Md Shamiur Rahman said that Bangladeshis had a huge scope in Russia but language is the crucial barrier.
WARBE Development Foundation chair Syed Saiful Haque said that increase in labour migration to Russia was good news, but recruitment agencies and authorities should monitor the issue carefully because of trafficking risks. WARBE is the Welfare Association for the Rights of Bangladeshi Emigrants.
He said that there had already been several reported cases of human trafficking though they did not directly migrate from Bangladesh to Russia or not for labour migration.
According to the police Criminal Investigation Department, at least 20 Bangladeshis were trafficked to Russia in the past two years and were forced to take part in forefront Russia-Ukraine war, killing at least three of them.
BMET immigration sector director Tazim Ur Rahman said that they were issuing migration pass after getting confirmation from Russia.
He said that though there were risks, there were huge opportunities, too.
Shamiur Rahman said that they were sending workers according to the due process. If anyone was provoked or lured later, agencies had nothing to do with that.
According to migration experts, the Russian government has increased the quota for recruiting skilled workers from non-CIS countries recently. These countries will have a quota of sending 2,35,000 skilled workers to Russia in 2025, compared to 1,56,000 in 2024.
They said that Russia’s industrial worker shortage had hit its economy hard in various ways in recent years, which also increased the demand for foreign workers.
An estimated several thousand Bangladeshis live in Russia, mainly for employment and education.
