How Ami Probashi platform could be better utilised to ease migration, bypassing middlemen

Bangladesh's Ami Probashi app has a vast database to assist both skilled and unskilled workers seeking overseas employment but despite its potential to ease migration-related hardships, the aspiring migrant database and other associated products remain underutilised.

Sector insiders said that recruiting agencies frequently avoid using the database, as they prefer to maximise profits through higher migration fees.

Ami Probashi operates an advanced recruitment management system that connects millions of aspiring migrant workers with potential employers. Through the platform and app, users can easily be selected, interviewed online, and communicated with directly.

The app hosts a diverse pool of skilled migrants who are eager to find legitimate job opportunities and avoid the expenses often associated with middlemen in the recruitment process.

Stakeholders have long advocated for such a database and recruitment system to streamline the migration process, reduce fraud, and lower costs.

Currently, many Bangladeshi migrant workers face high expenses for low-wage jobs abroad, largely due to bureaucratic hurdles, middlemen, and recruiting agencies.

Launched in mid-2020, the Ami Probashi app aims to address these issues by offering innovative technological solutions in collaboration with the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment and the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET).

Shakirul Islam, chairman of the Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program (OKUP), told TBS, "We have long advocated for a database for aspiring migrants, but recruiting agencies have shown little interest in it."

"Now that a database exists, agencies should be mandated to recruit from it, which would help curb the exploitation by middlemen," he added.

The impact of the Ami Probashi app is impressive, with over 25 lakh BMET registrations completed in just two years.

The number of app users is now 55 lakh. Nearly 85% of around 2,500 recruiting agencies in the country are now using the digital platform for BMET clearance cards.

However, only 50 agencies regularly use the Ami Probashi database to choose workers.

Shamim Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, former general secretary of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies, told TBS that the database remains underutilised for various reasons. "Many people are unaware of its existence, and often, the specific type or number of workers we require is not always available in the database."

He further noted, "Additionally, it shouldn't be mandatory to send workers for fixed costs. Instead, the system should be more flexible, with transactions facilitated through banking channels."

Meanwhile, the app authority is going to launch a direct foreign recruitment process through the portal in the next month so that foreign employers can select workers from the database via a recruitment agency. 

"We have the data, we have the people, and we have the system to recruit Bangladeshi workers that never used to exist before. A foreign company doesn't know how to recruit from Bangladesh. We have made a system through which they can recruit safely but we need the help of the government to promote this product internationally," Tarique e Haque, founder and chairman, Ami Probashi Ltd, told The Business Standard.

"The government should support Ami Probashi so that foreign employers can directly select general or skilled candidates. We need more government support for upskilling workers. For instance, the aspirant migrants who complete level 2 in his English test, how can we facilitate them to reach level 3?" he added.

He urged the authorities concerned to start the online attestation system of job demand letters at Bangladesh embassies abroad.

How Ami Probashi reduced migration time

In the past, Bangladeshi migrant workers had to manually complete each step of the government's migration process in person at various offices. This often required taking a day off work and, even after securing a job, running around after middlemen just to complete these government processes.

Since the launch of the Ami Probashi app along with a portal, all of these government services are now available online.

The main product is the expatriates' welfare ministry's back-end software, which is now used to approve every file and application online.

What used to take a month to complete pre-departure orientation now only takes three days using Ami Probashi. BMET registration used to take four or five days, but now it can be done in a couple of hours.

In the past, it would take at least two months for one to go abroad after finding a job. Now it can be done in 20 days. The app has led to a significant reduction in migration processing times.

How the app reduced migration costs

Previously, if people wanted to go abroad on their own, there was no scope for them to get their own smart immigration clearance cards issued by the BMET. That is why they had to go to a recruiting agency.

The app authority claimed that aspirant migrants previously had to pay the agencies Tk40,000-Tk50,000 to obtain the cards. The practice ceased after the introduction of Ami Probashi. 

If a worker somehow manages to arrange a visa on his or her own, he or she no longer has to rely on anyone else for immigration clearance cards.

Now, all prospective migrants are using the digital platform, each using one feature or more. Even if someone doesn't use any feature, he or she is obtaining the QR code from Ami Probashi for a clearance card. The fact that the code is available free of cost is saving users money here.

The people who have obtained visas and jobs on their own now have the opportunity to handle the processing themselves, which was previously unheard of. This saves them Tk40,000 to Tk50,000.