Unskilled workers are sending more than half of the total foreign exchange remittances which stands over 240 billion taka (about 3.42 billion U.S. dollars) to Bangladesh, local daily The Independent reported Thursday.

According to the daily, the share of the professionals, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled laborers in the total expatriate workforce were 7 percent, 30 percent, 9 percent and 54 percent respectively.

By the end of June 2005, there were 19,107 professionals, 81, 887 skilled, 24,566 semi-skilled and 147,398 unskilled working in over 10 countries.

Most of the expatriates are working in the Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Malaysia and Singapore. New employment opportunities have been created for Bangladeshi workers in Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, South Korea, Brunei, Mauritius and Italy.

According to latest statistics, expatriate Bangladeshis in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Singapore are 50.93 percent, 17.22 percent, 15.06 percent, 3.37 percent and 2.55 percent respectively.

In the current fiscal year (July 2005-June 2006), about 70 percent remittances came from the countries in the Middle East only. The second highest remittances came from the United States. The remittances from Britain grew significantly in the last couple of years.

Last year the highest amount of remittances came from Saudi Arabia. Of the total remittances, the share from the United States, UAE and Kuwait were 14.48 percent, 11.49 percent and 10.57 percent respectively.

In financial year 2004-05, the remittances from Saudi Arabia was 1.51 billion dollars, 442.24 million dollars from United Arab Emirates, 406.80 million dollars from Kuwait, and 557.31 million dollars from the United States.

Source: Xinhua