Say experts
Different government and non-government institutions including brokers and recruiting agents obtain hard cash from non-organised migrant workers, but they insufficiently show responsibility to the overseas employees, experts said yesterday.
The sector, which now brings some US$11 billion annually, is the lifeline of the country’s economy, yet the successive governments have cared the migrants little, they told a discussion.
Institute of Governance Studies (IGS) of Brac University organised it on “International labour migration: Making migrant workers’ welfare central to governance” at Jatri conference room in the city.
“The state has extracted cash money from the non-organised migrants since the last 20 years,” said eminent jurist Dr Shahdeen Malik.
Baira (Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies) also cannot deny that the money from this business is used in politics, he said.
“This is the absurdity of the state,” said Malik, a Supreme Court lawyer. Nearly 70 lakh Bangladeshis work abroad, but the budget for the expatriates’ welfare ministry is only Tk 40 crore, he added.
Putting the sector in discipline requires a major policy shift of the state to ensure migrants’ rights, he said.
BNP leader Barrister Mahbubuddin Khokon said the government has always played dual role regarding money laundering that takes place much often in the sector.
As transparency has not been established, agents, brokers, and others get engaged in frauds and hundreds of crore of taka is laundered abroad, said Khokon, also joint secretary general of BNP.
Israfil Alam MP, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour and Employment, said overseas employment has been turned into a ‘dumping sector’ for mismanagement in the last few years.
A lot of people were sent to Malaysia on tourist visas, he said, adding that a serious inquiry into the agencies that have sent them is important.
Media personality Muhammad Jahangir said the government should consider it a thrust sector and employ adequate personnel to serve the people.
Prof Tasneem Siddiqui, chair of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit, said high migration cost and low salaries are the major constraints for the Bangladeshi migrants.
Strong negotiations and monitoring of the welfare issues by the missions abroad are imperative, said Siddiqui who chaired the programme.
IGS research associate Harun-Or-Rashid presented a paper at the event. IGS Director Manzoor Hasan; Baira Secretary General Ali Haider Chowdhury; its former president Mosharraf Hossain MP; and Nurul Islam, director of Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training, also spoke.
