Migration Anomalies: Minister bins TIB report
Without giving an explanation, Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam yesterday rejected the findings of a Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) report on irregularities and corruption in the migration sector.
He also termed the report "baseless" and said they would protest it formally by sending a letter to TIB soon.
"It is a conspiracy against us. TIB published the report to tarnish the image of the ministry,” the minister said during a views-exchange meeting with reporters at Probashi Kallyan Bhaban in the capital.
In its report titled "Good Governance in Labour Migration Process: Problem and Way Out" released on March 9, TIB said around 90 percent of five lakh Bangladeshi male workers had to pay two to three times the usual migration cost last year to obtain work visas for seven countries, including five in the Middle East.
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The migrants also paid bribes at different stages at the ministry and the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) for visa approval to go to the destination countries, it said.
Besides, at least Tk 5,234 crore was laundered from Bangladesh last year for getting visas for these countries, the report found.
Referring to TIB's findings, Expatriates' Welfare Secretary Begum Shamsun Nahar, however, said the migrants have to pay a lot due to visa trade, where brokers are involved.
They also face harassment in order to get passports and at immigrations, she said. "But they [workers] do not become victims of corruption or harassment at our ministry,” the secretary claimed.
Contacted, TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman yesterday defended their findings.
“We hope that the ministry will consider our findings sincerely for the sake of this [migration] sector and the country," he told The Daily Star.
Their report was prepared totally based on information, and the findings were verified before being revealed, Iftekharuzzaman added.
Apart from this, TIB sat with the secretary and other officials of the ministry and the BMET to share the draft of the findings before disclosing the report, he said.
AGENTS' SYNDICATE FOR MALAYSIAN Jobs
On the allegation of a syndicate of 10 private recruiting agencies active in sending workers to Malaysia, Nurul Islam said they did not allow agencies to form any syndicate in Bangladesh.
"Recruiting agents, who didn't get any favour from me, formed a syndicate in Malaysia," he said.
But the expatriates' welfare secretary said the number of agencies working for a labour market depended on job demands in foreign countries.
Mentioning that there are 1,081 licenced recruiting agencies at present, she said the Malaysian government had chosen 10 agencies to work for their country.
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In 2012, the governments of Bangladesh and Malaysia introduced a government to government (G2G) system to exclude middlemen and reduce costs for exporting manpower to Malaysia.
Around 10,000 workers were also sent to Malaysia under this process at low cost. Besides, there are no allegations of involvement of brokers, visa trade and other harassment, including that in issuance of passports, the secretary claimed.
But the two countries' agents had made the system ineffective, she alleged. So, both the governments had to introduce a G2G Plus system which allows the participation of recruiting agencies.
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