Speakers at a discussion on Sunday said 52 per cent of all returnee female migrant workers are unable to utilise their skills and experiences for lack of opportunities.
They also said if the government as well as non-government organisations fail to take up a comprehensive action plan within the next five years, the returnee female migrants would only swell the rank of unused resources. They further stressed the need to reintegrate them into mainstream. The speakers were speaking at a meeting on a study, “Dissemination of study findings on returnee women migrant workers of Bangladesh: insights into improving the employment experience and opportunities in reintegration”, organised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The study was conducted by the Insight Initiatives Limited to shed light on the situation of women migrants. The study also intended to provide an analysis on the needs and gaps in services and existing support mechanisms to find ways to utilize remittances and support employment options in a better manner.
IOM consultant Mahrukh Mohiuddin presented the research findings. He showed that owing to illiteracy and lack of international standard training, most returnee migrants had faced physical abuse and language barriers abroad. The research findings also show that a large number of women, who mostly worked as domestic workers, had to endure daily beating and verbal abuse. They also did not have any support network and did not seek help from the Bangladesh embassy.
Begum Shamsun Nahar, director general of the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), who attended the event as the chief guest, said that whenever the government inks any Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with another country, such as the MoU with the Jordan government, it should include security, insurance and other facilities for female migrant workers. She also said that it is very difficult to exercise any labour-related rights to the Middle East countries, but they are still trying to create pressure with the support of various forums.
She noted that without the support of labour-receiving countries, it is not possible for the government to handle this issue. “We’ve to resolve our problems step by step,” she added.
She said the government has opened a database process for female migrant workers, which would reduce the cost of migration. Naheed M. Ahmed, national programme manager of UN Women, talked about the importance of reintegration of returnee female migrant workers into society. “It’s very essential for women migrant workers as we don’t know the exact number of such workers who come back from abroad,” she said. All returnee migrant workers should be provided with education, shelter, and social support, she added.
Dr Nurul Islam, director of the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), said that the issue of the women migrant workers is a diverse one. He suggested formation of legal cells to sort out the problems of female migrant workers.
-With The Independent input
