Importing labor in Bosnia and Herzegovina is already becoming a practice. The number of workers coming to work in our country from Bangladesh, Turkey and Nepal has increased by 30 percent, which is, in fact, a consequence of the departure of domestic labor to the Western European market.
From 2013 until today, about 660 thousand people left Bosnia and Herzegovina. Injustice, corruption, impossibility of employment – these are just some of the reasons, says Ervin Mešanović, who mediates in the recruitment of medical personnel in Austria. It is not easy for him when everyday people, especially young people, ask how to leave the country.
ERVIN MEŠANOVIĆ, owner of an employment agency
“Every year, at least a thousand students graduate, and let’s be realistic – one hundred to two of them get a job, and what about the rest?”.
All those who have recently tried to hire a painter, tiler, electrician or plumber know the extent to which the departure of qualified labor is affecting us.
Construction workers, restaurateurs, cooks. As a result, certain industries rely more and more on foreign labor. This is also shown by data according to which more than 3,000 work permits were granted to foreign citizens from January to November alone.
NEDŽAD VELADŽIĆ, director of the Una Sana Canton Employment Service
“All employers who are looking for workers from a foreign country and find them, contact us. There is a form, a request that they submit. On that form, the documentation that should be submitted along with the form is listed. We and our colleagues, professional associates, review all of this. If everything is in order, it is packed and sent to the Federal Employment Agency”.
DOMINIK RAŠKAJ, PR manager of the employment portal
“Entrepreneurs are trying to keep workers. They don’t have much room to give higher wages, because there was no support from the state in terms of subsidies. Therefore, they were forced to import labor from Bangladesh, India, the Philippines…”.
If the current trend of emigration and importation of labor continues, the question arises as to who will live in these areas in the future. Will national parties continue to rule, but of some other nations…
