The global economic crisis is putting a dent in funds sent to poor South Asian countries by nationals working abroad amid fears their armies of cheap workers will become redundant, reports Agence France Presse (AFP).

Millions of families in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka rely on remittances from relatives working in construction or as domestic servants in booming southeast Asian and Gulf nations.

Unskilled workers can often save in a month what they could in a year back home, helping prop up shaky balance of payments in their domestic economies.

But recruiters told AFP this is now under threat after oil prices fell to a near two-year low of 61 dollars per barrel and as the worst global financial turmoil since the 1930s grips the developed world.

“Oil prices have tumbled which will sharply slow down demand for our workers in the Gulf’s booming construction industry in coming months. Other jobs will also take a hit,” Golam Mostafa, president of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies told AFP.

Bangladesh sent a record 832,000 people abroad in 2007, many of whom landed jobs in oil-rich Gulf countries after sky-rocketing crud prices led to a construction boom in the Middles East.

In the past fiscal year migrant workers pumped eight billion dollars into the Bangladeshi economy accounting for 12 percent o its gross domestic product.

In Nepal, 2.2 million overseas workers contribute about one billion dollars a year to the economy, according to the Department of Labour, which says the economic crisis has already hit the remittances inflow. “Our preliminary reports say that there has been a drop of between five to 10 percent in the numbers going abroad in September and October,” department spokesman Shsyam Khatri Chetri said.

“We are anticipating a further fall in the numbers leaving.”

In the capital Kathmandu Binod Karki has been sending around 100 workers to Malaysia everyt month for the past five years, but cutbacks have started to bite.

“Since the crash, demand for factory workers has been completely dried up,” said Karki.

Meanwhile, a high-level committee headed by Vice-Chairman of National Planning Commission Dr. Pitambar Sharma has been formed by the government to study the possible fall out of the global financial melt down on Nepal’s economy and make necessary policy-level recommendations to the government to tackle the crisis.

The 7-member committee comprises Nepal Rastra Bank acting governor Krishna Bahadur Manandhar, finance secretary Rameshwore Khanal, senior advisor of the finance ministry Shree Ram Paudel, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry President Kush Kumar Josh and Nepal Bankers Association President Radhesh Pant as members nepalnews.com ag Nov 03 08