Automating migration: How digital platforms are transforming Bangladesh’s labour mobility
Bangladesh’s labour migration is being reshaped by digital platforms that cut costs, reduce middlemen, and bring transparency — yet their success ultimately depends on governance integrity
Labour migration has long been a vital economic lifeline for Bangladesh. With over $20 billion in annual remittances (World Bank, 2024), the country heavily relies on workers seeking employment abroad.
Yet the migration process has historically been fraught with hurdles — middlemen, inflated costs, forged documents, and bureaucratic inefficiency. In recent years, the rise of digital platforms has begun to reshape this journey, introducing a level of automation and transparency previously absent.
A digital breakthrough
Between 2021 and 2024, more than 833,125 Bangladeshi workers migrated abroad through a single digital platform called Ami Probashi — bypassing traditional middlemen.
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Among them, 731,875 were men and 101,250 women. This transition illustrates how automation can reduce both the cost and the uncertainty of migration.
The figures also reveal how quickly the system scaled up. In 2022, just 149 workers used the digital system to process migration. By 2023, the number jumped to 193,571, and in 2024, it more than doubled to 487,208.
As of August 2025, another 152,017 workers had already migrated via the same route.
Destinations: Shaping the labour map
The majority of male workers migrated to the Gulf, with Saudi Arabia alone accounting for 51% (374,373) of the total. Other significant destinations included Qatar (13.3%), Malaysia (7.9%), and the UAE (6.5%).
For women, the pattern was even more concentrated — 78% went to Saudi Arabia, followed by smaller flows to the UK, Qatar and Oman.
These numbers speak to how automation not only tracks worker flows more accurately but also creates a live database of labour demand across countries, something policymakers can use to negotiate bilateral labour agreements (ILO 2023).
Training and registration at scale
The platform's impact goes beyond migration approvals. Over 4.9 million workers registered digitally with the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) through this Ami Probashi app — 4.7 million men and 270,000 women.
In pre-departure orientation (PDO), 3.2 million workers enrolled, of whom 3.15 million completed training.
Bangladesh's migration process has historically been fraught with hurdles — middlemen, inflated costs, forged documents, and bureaucratic inefficiency. In recent years, the rise of digital platforms has begun to reshape this journey, introducing a level of automation and transparency previously absent.
In general skill training, 364,379 workers enrolled, with 293,982 graduating.
Digitisation made these steps faster, cheaper, and more transparent; in fact, it's addressing a persistent criticism that untrained or poorly informed workers often end up in exploitative jobs abroad (Rahman and Fee 2022).
Digital governance and migration policy
Scholars of digital governance have argued that technology transforms state–citizen relations by reducing transaction costs and standardising processes, while minimising opportunities for rent-seeking.
Heeks (2006) frames this as "e-government as reform", where digitalisation enhances efficiency, transparency, and accountability. Bangladesh's migration automation exemplifies this shift: the platform replaces opaque, paper-heavy processes with standardised digital flows.
From a migration studies perspective, Castles and Miller (2009) describe migration governance as a tension between control and facilitation. States must ensure workers' safety while enabling economic mobility. Digital platforms reconcile these competing goals by allowing data-driven control (tracking worker contracts, destinations, and training) alongside facilitating access (reducing barriers to entry).
Economically, Amartya Sen's capability approach provides another lens. Migration is not simply movement—it expands individuals' real freedoms to pursue livelihoods abroad (Sen 1999). Automation strengthens this by lowering entry barriers, ensuring training, and giving migrants more agency in decision-making, which is not the case with paper-based traditional processes.
Finally, global labour migration research (Xiang and Lindquist 2014; IOM 2020) highlights how "migration infrastructure"—brokers, agencies, training centres — often extracts value from migrants. Automation in Bangladesh is a step toward "de-brokerage", where the state (through digital governance) replaces exploitative intermediaries with transparent, rules-based systems.
Comparative perspectives: Lessons from the region
Bangladesh is not alone in pursuing digital migration management. Comparing with other labour-sending countries helps position its progress and challenges.
The Philippines: A global benchmark
The Philippines, often cited as a global leader in labour migration governance, operates a sophisticated Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) system integrated with digital platforms. Filipino workers must secure their OEC online before departure, which serves as proof of legal recruitment and contract verification.
The system is backed by strong institutional support from POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Administration), and it's entrusted with managing worker welfare funds and insurance digitally.
Digitalisation must be paired with robust institutional capacity and continuous monitoring of recruitment agencies. Technology alone is insufficient without enforcement.
Nepal: Similar struggles, similar reforms
Nepal introduced its Foreign Employment Information Management System (FEIMS) to curb broker-driven fraud. Like Bangladesh, Nepal faced severe slowdowns, poor connectivity, and digital illiteracy among rural workers (Sijapati 2017). Despite these setbacks, FEIMS has gradually reduced informal payments and improved contract verification.
Lesson for Bangladesh: Investing in user-friendly design and local-level digital literacy is critical to ensuring that rural migrants are not digitally excluded.
Bangladesh in context
Compared to the Philippines, Bangladesh is still in the early stages—strong on numbers but weak on system reliability. Compared to Nepal, Bangladesh's scale is larger and faster, but the same vulnerabilities (server instability, user access barriers) persist.
Bangladesh thus sits at a crossroads: it can either consolidate reforms and build global credibility, or backslide into dependency on informal brokers. This is not the case with migration alone; rather, in many other cases, Bangladesh sits at a crossroads.
Gains from automation
Reduced dependence on brokers – Online registration and clearance have curbed opportunities for fraud and excessive fees.
Lower costs – Workers save on middleman fees and travel to multiple government offices.
Time efficiency – Applications, training, and clearance can be completed faster.
Transparency – Workers can track their applications and access reliable data.
The emerging bottlenecks
Despite these successes, the transition is far from smooth. The government recently launched a new official migration platform, but server slowdowns, system crashes, and delays have caused serious bottlenecks.
Workers have reported missed flights and visa expirations due to delayed clearances. If such inefficiencies persist, migrants may once again turn to middlemen, undermining years of progress.
Policy significance
For Bangladesh, migration automation is not merely a technical fix—it is a governance reform. A country where remittances account for around 6% of GDP (World Bank 2024) cannot afford a broken system. A functioning digital platform ensures:
Labour rights protection – with clear records of contracts and training.
Negotiation power – accurate data strengthens Bangladesh's position in labour agreements with host countries.
Economic resilience – by securing a smoother outflow of workers and inflow of remittances.
The road ahead
Digital governance in migration is a rising trend globally. The Philippines shows how a strong institutional framework can make digital systems robust, while Nepal shows that even fragile systems can improve transparency if sustained. Bangladesh's experiment demonstrates both the promise and the pitfalls.
For the system to succeed, three conditions are critical:
Technical stability – robust servers and user-friendly design.
Integration – linking registration, training, medical, and clearance processes seamlessly.
Accessibility – ensuring workers in rural areas can navigate the system without digital exclusion.
Digital platforms like the Ami Probashi system have already reduced dependence on brokers, lowered costs, and streamlined procedures, offering a more transparent migration pathway. Concurrently, the SafeStep app—developed through partnerships among RMMRU, Winrock, Elevate, and others—adds an ethical layer to this ecosystem by equipping aspiring migrants with informational tools, budget calculators, document storage, e-learning content, checklists, and a help centre for safe and informed migration decisions.
However, while technological interventions like Ami Probashi and SafeStep (SafeStep lastly failed to do their job) hold immense promise, recent allegations of involvement by senior BMET officials in human trafficking in the UAE bring into sharp relief a disturbing paradox: "When the Protector Becomes the Predator." Institutions meant to safeguard migrant workers—if compromised—can erode the very digital safeguards designed to protect them.
This stark reality underscores that technological solutions alone are insufficient without the underlying governance integrity to support them. The effectiveness of migration automation hinges not just on technical reliability and user accessibility, but also on unwavering institutional accountability and transparency.
Protik Bardhan is a Senior Sub-Editor at Daily Prothom Alo.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.
