The Global Economic Perspective Report of 2006 by the World Bank found that remittance flow has helped Bangladesh to cut poverty by 6 percent. Eminent economist Prof. Wahiduddin Mahmud stressed that, since the 1980s, it has been the migrants' remittances that have sustained the economy of Bangladesh.

BGMEA and official statistical documents, however, lead us to believe that apparel manufacturing is the highest foreign exchange earning sector in Bangladesh. The fact remains that, once we deduct the cost of raw material import, remittance is the single largest source of foreign exchange income for the Bangladeshi economy.

Even after making such significant a contribution, why do migrant workers remain the most vulnerable section of our labour force? Why is it that Bangladeshi migrants continue to face hardship at home while getting their papers processed ? Why are unscrupulous recruitment practices still allowed to lead to fraudulence, high cost and, in some cases, pauperisation of those who wish to migrate? Why are we unable to ensure that migrants enjoy decent work conditions in the receiving countries? Why do their sufferings not end upon their return?

The answers perhaps lie in the fact that our policy makers have mostly concentrated on the exploration of new labour markets and securing of remittance as a source of foreign exchange, rather than promotion of the rights of migrants at home and abroad.

Besides, over the years, due to operational realities in both the sending and the receiving countries, migration has become an extremely complex process. It is more or less understood now that better protection of migrants' rights at all stages of migration requires adoption of policies and actions at national, regional and global levels.

At the international level, the United Nations has shown its concern towards migrants since its inception. The burgeoning complexity in international migration governance in the 1970s and 1980s led the UN to negotiate a protection instrument specifically for the migrant workers.

In December 1990, the General Assembly of the UN adopted the International Convention on the Protection of Rights of all Migrant Workers and their Families. This Convention is the most important international instrument concerning the migrant workers. The Convention came into force in June 2005 with the ratification by 20 countries.

Salient Features of 1990 Convention
For the first time this convention provides a comprehensive definition of migrant workers, including those who are to be engaged, are engaged, or have been engaged, in remunerative activity in a state of which they are not nationals. It recognizes the migrants as social beings, rather than looking at them as economic entities.

Also, this is the first international document to recognize women as migrant workers in their own right. It ensures full applicability of human rights to all workers, male and female, as well as their family members. The convention recognizes migrants of both regular and irregular status.

Bearing in mind the sensitivities of receiving states, this document grants only limited assurance to the rights of irregular migrants. These rights are basically rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

The regular migrants are provided rights which are almost at par with those of domestic workers, i.e. right to be temporarily absent (art 38), freedom of movement (art 39), right to participate in politics, public affairs and decision making processes (art 41 & 42), equality with nationals for access to educational, vocational and social services (art 43 & 45), right to reunification with family (art 44), tax and custom duty exemption (art 46 & 48), and right to choose remunerated activities (art 52).

What has Bangladesh done so far?
As a labour exporting country, it is very much in the interest of Bangladesh to ratify the convention. In 1997, the Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs forwarded the text of the 1990 Convention to the Law Commission of Bangladesh.

The Law Commission scrutinized the document and observed that it had no provision that contradicted the legal system of Bangladesh, and therefore could be ratified. On the basis of the recommendation, on October 8, 1998, the Government of Bangladesh signed the Convention.

Bangladesh was the 11th country to sign the convention, and since then 51 countries have signed and 37 have already ratified the convention. Since signing, no significant development has taken place. From 1999 various civil society organizations have conducted advocacy with different government stakeholders for ratification. But not much progress has been made so far.

Perceived problems with ratification
Since 1999, the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), Welfare Association of Returnee Migrant Workers and Bangladesh Woman Migrants Association have organized many advocacy campaigns. Policy makers, bureaucrats and human right's activists participated in those events. Following are some of the comments made by policy makers at these events:

"Currently there are demands from different international quarters for allowing trade unions in the factories of the Export Processing Zones, particularly in the garments factories. We have not been able to respond to that as it may effect foreign investment in Bangladesh. In this context, if we ask for rights of our workers abroad by ratifying the convention, we will be under more pressure to ensure similar rights for the domestic labour force (Legal Council, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2000)."

"Personally I am in favour of ratification. But I was advised by my ministry that if we signed the convention the countries which received our labour may not take this in a positive stride, and labour export from Bangladesh to those countries may be adversely affected (State Minister for Foreign Affairs, 2000)."

"Ratifying a convention does not achieve any significant development of rights. In the past, Bangladesh had signed many conventions. It did not enhance the rights of people' (A Director General of Mofa, 2001)."

"The Ministry of Expatriate's Welfare and Overseas Employment has no objection in ratifying the convention, but it is the Foreign Ministry which is responsible for the ratification (Secretary, Ministry of Expatriates Welfare, 2002)."

"India and Pakistan did not sign it, then why should Bangladesh sign it (a senior official of legal affairs desk of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2000)?"

"I do not see any hindrance in signing the convention, other than bureaucratic inertia (Justice Naimuddin Ahmed, the then member of Law Commission, 2001)."

Breaking the Perceptions:
In some areas we do appreciate the concerns of policy makers and government functionaries. However, one can see that global and national situations have changed since those statements were made.

Over the years we have seen that many labour exporting countries, including Sri Lanka and the Philippines, have ratified the Convention. Statements made by senior functionaries of those states in different international forums have reiterated that none of them faced adverse repercussions in labour export because of ratification.

In the recent past, substantial improvements had taken place in compliance of international labour standards in case of apparel manufacturing and other export processing industries. Therefore, we should not withhold the ratification.

Indian and Pakistani dependence on remittance is not as high as Bangladesh's. Besides, if those countries do not want better protection of their migrant work force, Bangladesh does not need to follow them. Rather, Bangladesh should follow the lead of Sri Lanka, which has a high dependence on remittances and has ratified the treaty.

The current government has taken major steps against corruption, and streamlined the recruitment industry as well. The Convention provides state of the art techniques to ensure accountability of those recruiting agencies who commit fraud.

At the same time, it also suggests methods for rewarding recruiting agencies who are successful in negotiating job contracts on better terms for the workers. In this context, we appeal to the government to ratify the 1990 UN Convention.

The first meeting of the Global Forum on Migration, set up by the UN, will take place on July11-12 2007. A decision to ratify the instrument before that will be a major indication of the commitment of the current caretaker government to the adherence to UN standards on migrant rights.

The writer is professor of political science and executive committee member of Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit of University of Dhaka.