Tayeb Ali from Noakhali was left jobless in Saudi Arabia for nearly two months after paying BDT 530,000 for a promised packaging job. To fund the trip, Ali had borrowed BDT 350,000, sold his wife’s jewellery and a cow, and took additional loans from relatives. A temporary post at a construction firm followed, but the wages were irregular. He had to ask his family for money at one point to cover his living costs. With no permanent job in prospect, he was back home within six months.

Every year, many Bangladeshi migrants like Tayeb fall prey to visa trading and return without the work they were promised. Workers frequently travel abroad without knowing which company they will join, what the job will involve, what wage has been fixed or on what terms, often because the employer issues no genuine contract. Where a contract is provided, it can turn out on arrival to name a different employer, a different job or a different wage. Intermediaries and brokers are accused of drawing up such documents themselves and passing them to workers.

No precise figure exists for this vast undeclared market, but its scale can be inferred from what migrants spend. Field data and government records show that while government-set costs for the same workers to reach the top 10 destinations should total about BDT 166.10 billion, actual outlay reaches more than BDT 585.67 billion, leaving a gap of around BDT 420 billion. Those in the sector say the excess is linked to visa trading, middlemen’s commissions and unauthorised transactions at every stage.

An analysis of data from the International Organization for Migration, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Transparency International Bangladesh and government sources indicates that visa trading, middlemen’s commissions and unauthorised transactions together account for a market worth at least BDT 300 billion annually.

Migration specialists say work permits are being bought and sold through undeclared transactions, with no guarantee of genuine demand from a foreign employer, a specific job or a wage. Many families purchase these visas by selling land, jewellery or their last remaining assets, and by taking on high-interest loans.

Yet the large sums spent bring no assurance of employment. The money instead changes hands across successive tiers of recruiting agencies, middlemen and broker networks, driving up migration costs and trapping workers in debt. Specialists identify this opaque trade as one of the single biggest crises facing Bangladesh’s labour migration sector.

Zakaria Shikder, a Bangladeshi agent supplying workers to construction companies in Saudi Arabia with about 150 workers on his books, explained to Bonik Barta how the trade operates.

The initial cost of a Saudi visa is about 2,000 riyals (roughly BDT 70,000). By the time the work permit is secured, a further BDT 100,000 to BDT 150,000 is added. In many cases, Zakaria said, sponsors secure work permits in their names for workers they do not actually need. The sponsor takes out two or three permits in his own name and charges BDT 100,000 to BDT 150,000 for each.

The worker enters Saudi Arabia as the sponsor’s employee but subsequently works for another company. In this way, the price of a single work permit reaches about BDT 200,000 inside Saudi Arabia before changing hands several more times through Bangladeshi recruiting agencies, sub-agents and brokers. With commissions added at every stage, the final cost rises to three or four times the original price.

Zakaria added that an extra 5,000 to 6,000 riyals also has to be paid to the sponsor when the iqama, or residence permit, comes up for renewal.

According to the latest socioeconomic and demographic survey by BBS, 52.3 percent of the total cost incurred by migrant workers goes to brokers or intermediaries. The figure is higher in rural areas than in towns and cities. A further 42.9 percent of migrants pay their migration costs to recruiting agencies, and only 3.9 percent pay a government institution directly. The survey shows the bulk of migration spending across almost every division ends up with brokers.

Members of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) say a syndicate connecting employers with Bangladeshi agencies, alongside middlemen networks, plays a major role in the trade. Recruiting agencies often cannot obtain work orders directly from employers and instead buy visas from foreign representatives or agents for large sums. In Malaysia, an influential group tied to the running of the Foreign Workers Centralized Management System faces allegations of levying unauthorised extra fees.

One BAIRA member, speaking to Bonik Barta on condition of anonymity, said 25 recruiting agencies recently listed in Malaysia’s labour market each had to pay about BDT 50 million to join the syndicate, with further sums running into tens of millions required later. When Malaysia’s labour market opened previously, he said, agencies had to pay more than BDT 100,000 per worker merely for permission to send them.

A TIB report shows that part of the foreign currency needed to buy visas is sent abroad through informal hundi channels rather than banking networks. TIB estimates that BDT 52.34 billion was sent through hundi in 2016 to purchase visas that were then sold to workers for BDT 168.73 billion.

TIB also notes that some officials at Bangladeshi missions in destination countries attest demand letters without proper checks, or in exchange for bribes. Visas then pass through six or seven stages before reaching the worker. TIB puts the minimum cost of buying a visa at BDT 250,000 in Singapore, BDT 120,000 in Qatar, BDT 100,000 each in Malaysia and the UAE, BDT 70,000 each in Bahrain and Oman, and BDT 68,000 in Saudi Arabia.

In 2016, the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment fixed official country-by-country migration costs: BDT 165,000 for Saudi Arabia, BDT 160,000 for Malaysia, BDT 100,780 each for Oman and Qatar, BDT 107,780 for the UAE, BDT 262,270 for Singapore, BDT 97,780 for Bahrain, BDT 106,780 for Kuwait, BDT 102,780 for Jordan, BDT 166,640 for Russia and BDT 115,780 for the Maldives.

Workers on the ground describe a vastly different reality. Reaching Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and other Middle Eastern countries now costs anywhere from BDT 400,000 to BDT 700,000 per person. Saudi Arabia alone averages about BDT 500,000, with some paying up to BDT 900,000 to buy a visa. Malaysia’s actual cost runs from BDT 500,000 to BDT 800,000 despite an official cost under BDT 100,000. Qatar costs BDT 500,000 to BDT 600,000, Oman BDT 400,000 to BDT 500,000 and Singapore BDT 1.5 million to BDT 1.6 million, with some workers spending as much as BDT 1.8 million. European destinations cost BDT 1.6 million to BDT 2.5 million, depending on the country. Workers going to Serbia, Macedonia and Moldova currently spend BDT 1.6 million to BDT 1.8 million each.

BMET figures show that 1,132,360 Bangladeshi workers went abroad in 2025, with the top 10 destinations accounting for 94.7 percent of the total. Saudi Arabia took the largest share by far at 755,194. Qatar came next with 107,598, followed by Singapore with 70,832, Kuwait with 42,746, the Maldives with 40,159, the UAE with 13,750, Jordan with 13,375, Cambodia with 12,263, Italy with 9,365 and Kyrgyzstan with 6,652.

Across the top seven labour markets, migrants paid roughly BDT 420 billion more than the government-mandated costs.

Bangladeshi workers now pay more to migrate than any of their counterparts in South Asia. The number of recruiting agencies in Bangladesh is also unusually high relative to overseas migration. Unregulated agencies have had a major impact on the labour market. At the grassroots level, the activities of brokers and intense competition among recruiting agencies and sub-agents are driving up visa trading.

BMET data show that Bangladesh currently has 2,860 recruiting agencies, compared with 1,988 in neighbouring India. The country also has more active recruiting agencies than any other country in South Asia. Despite having more agencies, the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment approved recruiting licences for another 252 firms under the former interim government.

Specialists say this proliferation fuels fresh broker networks. To avoid liability, most agencies do not hand visas directly to workers, relying instead on sub-agents who operate beyond regulatory oversight. Migrants typically hand over money in instalments before a visa is even confirmed, receiving their employment contract only at the airport when they arrive to leave the country.

BAIRA’s former joint secretary general Mohammed Fakhrul Islam said a central database had been proposed to keep migration costs within specified limits. He told Bonik Barta: “A universal database has to be created under BMET, from which recruiting agencies will be obliged to select workers. Payments of the government-set migration cost must be routed only through Probashi Kallyan Bank or designated banking channels so that there’s no scope for cash transactions.”

He added that agencies recruiting outside the database or charging more than the prescribed fee should face stern action such as getting their licences revoked.

Migration specialist Asif Munir noted that a shortage of skills and language ability is one of the reasons for high migration costs and reduces workers’ bargaining power, increasing their dependence on buying visas from foreign intermediaries and supply companies at high prices.

“Many workers from India, Nepal and Sri Lanka are ahead in language and technical skills, which lets them go abroad at lower cost or on an employer-pay model,” He told Bonik Barta. “Because Bangladesh gives priority only to the number of workers it sends, it falls short in building a skilled workforce.”

Munir added that private recruiting agencies are indispensable because traditional government-to-government arrangements cannot send large numbers of workers. He said reducing irregularities requires stronger embassy oversight in destination countries, transparency in visa transactions, and proper training and awareness for workers going abroad.

State Minister for Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Nurul Haque told Bonik Barta that recruiting agency owners also have a responsibility to the country. “How does it cost BDT 1.5 million to go to Singapore? It shouldn’t cost that much. The real cost shouldn’t exceed BDT 350,000. Six training institutes have been given authority, and they have become owners of billions of taka. We are working to ensure transparency in migration costs. Gradually we will bring migration costs into a set framework. We have already discussed updating the migration costs the previous government fixed for various countries. We have also held a meeting on Singapore. The government will fix country-by-country migration costs. No one will be able to charge workers more than the set cost.”