According to the TIB report, dishonest foreign nationals resorted to illegal channel such as hundi traders while sending remittance away from Bangladesh.

The foreign employees are mostly from India, China, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Turkey, Norway and Nigeria.

Most of them are employed in garments, textiles, buying houses, multi-national companies, power plants, telecom companies, information technologies, leather factories, healthcare, hotels, restaurants, logistics, and energy companies.

Lack of skilled industry workers at home and the emergence of technology-based, automatic and heavy equipment, are among the reasons why employers have to rely on foreigners, the report observed.

In the readymade garment sector, there is a shortage of Bangladeshis eligible to be in top management positions. Employers also have to rely on foreigners when they look for someone with the communications skills required for buyer management, the report says.

Foreigners without work permit first arrived in Bangladesh on tourist visa and took the advantage of a three-month stay permit. By that time, they got recruited, bypassing the legal procedure.

When their visa was about to be expired, they returned to their countries, applied for a new tourist visa for three months and then came back to Bangladesh again to continue their jobs, it said.