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Bangladeshi workers' migration rate has increased 5.65 percentage points this year, says a RMMRU report.

About 5.68 lakh Bangladeshi workers migrated abroad last year, while it has already been more than 6 lakh by December this year, it says.

The report, "International Labour Migration from Bangladesh 2012: Achievements and Challenges", was launched by Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), an affiliate of Dhaka University, at the capital's Jatiya Press Club yesterday.

It says the lion's share of remittance came from Saudi Arabia this year though larger numbers of workers migrated to United Arab Emirates and Oman.

It shows the country has received 27 percent of remittance from Saudi Arabia, while over 19 percent came from UAE and 2.4 percent from Oman.

The report predicts that Bangladesh might earn $14 billion in remittance by the end of this year. The country has already received $12.87 billion till November, it says.

The paper says although UAE tops the list among the highest recipient countries of Bangladeshi workers, the migration to UAE fell this year.

“Forty four percent of the migrant workers have gone to UAE this year, while it was 50 percent last year,” said Dr Tasneem Siddiqui, founder chair of RMMRU.

The number of workers migrating to UAE fell due to a sanction the Middle East country imposed on Bangladeshi workers in September, she said.

The RMMRU report also shows a rise in female workers' migration this year. The rate is 11.44 percentage points higher than the previous year, it says.

According to the report, Lebanon is the largest destination country for Bangladeshi female workers and that is 37 percent, followed by Jordan (23 percent), and UAE (20 percent).

At the launch, Tasneem Siddiqui criticised the government for not keeping any database on the migrant workers who returned home.

She said 17,518 migrant workers returned Bangladesh upon deportation till October.

Tasneem, however, lauded the government for signing a deal to send workers to Malaysia under state arrangements.