Migrant workers in high-income countries remitted a record of more than 167 billion dollars to their families in countries like Bangladesh last year, the UN agency report released Thursday said, calling for measures to ensure the money is used for long-term development.

If remittances sent through informal channels are counted, the figures could rise by as much as 50 percent, it pointed out.

As of 2004 three of the top five remittance-receiving countries in the world were located in Asia--India which received 21.7 billion dollars, China with 21.3 billion dollars and the Philippines with 11.6 billion dollars, said the United Nations economic and social arm.

Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are also among the major recipients of remittances, while Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and the Pacific Island of Samoa benefit to a lesser extent.

The agency urged governments in recipient countries to cut the costs of sending money home and help the workers' families channel the funds into more productive endeavours.

Countries exporting migrant workers should also take steps to improve their skills and tighten policies to ensure they do not fall prey to unscrupulous recruitment agencies, UN-ESCAP said.

"Policy-makers need to recognise that remittances are private flows of money that need to be treated as such. Therefore, these flows should not be taxed," it said.

The money has already been taxed in the country of origin and imposing taxes will discourage workers from sending funds through the banking system, it added.

It noted that levies charged by remittance service providers "are very high", with fees for small transfers reaching as high as 10-15 percent.

"There is no doubt that more can be done to increase the volume of home remittances and to enable the recipients to use them more effectively," UN-ESCAP said.

"Additional measures should be taken to increase the access of poor migrant workers and their families to formal financial institutions."

UN-ESCAP urged banks in the worker's home countries to establish branches in host nations and allow micro credit institutions and credit unions to transfer funds to rural households.

The agency said governments should give the right information about job opportunities to prevent situations in which families borrow huge sums to send a worker abroad, only to discover that the earnings are not enough to recover the cost.

In the Asia Pacific region, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Singapore are major sources of remittances for developing countries.

For Laos and Myanmar, neighbouring Thailand is a key source of workers' remittances, UN-ESCAP said. Outside the region, Canada, the United States, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States are the main source of foreign workers' remittances.

An increasing number of remittance-senders are women, it noted.