Ease labour-sending process
Bangladesh needs to ease the labour-sending process alongside upskilling its workforce to compete in international labour market, Ali Haider Chowdhury, secretary general of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira), said yesterday.
Labour-sending countries like India, Pakistan, and Nepal, which are Bangladesh's competitors, can send their workers abroad within three to four weeks, while workers from Bangladesh cannot migrate even in three months because of legal tangles, said Haider while addressing a dialogue at Baira office in the capital.
Baira, along with Warbe Development Foundation and Bangladesh Parliamentarians' Caucus on Migration and Development, held the dialogue on "Ensuring Fair and Ethical Recruitment, Return and Reintegration."
They previously raised the issue before the expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry, said Haider, adding that smooth operation with a one-stop service in place was required to address the problem.
Jatiya Party lawmaker and adviser of the caucus Anisul Islam Mahmud mentioned the high migration costs that workers have to pay for employment abroad and said such costs should be "reasonable".
Pointing to activities of middlemen or sub-agents who operate in labour migration sector without legal obligation, he said middlemen should be registered and that they and recruiting agencies have to be jointly responsible for fraudulence.
Anisul also raised questions over the proper use of the wage earners' welfare fund created from workers' contributions.
Another JP lawmaker, Mujibul Haque Chunnu, said to ensure ethical recruitment of workers, alongside recruiting agencies, the government's regulatory authority has to come forward.
Warebe Chairman Syed Saiful Haque and International Labour Organisation's National Project Manager Rahnuma Salam Khan, among others, spoke.
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