'Raise public awareness for safe migration'

Raise public awareness to facilitate safe migration, said the migrant experts at a workshop in the city yesterday.

They also called for identifying the ways to create awareness of the potential pitfalls of irregular migration.

Organised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the workshop was attended by the representatives of different migrants' associations, ministries, UN agencies, NGOs, and airlines.

AKM Shamsuddin, secretary- in-charge of expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry, was the chief guest while Md Shahidul Haque, regional representative of IOM for South Asia, chaired the inaugural session.

The participants discussed the civil society's role in raising awareness at the community level to help the potential migrants know the risks and realities of irregular migration as well as the safer ways of migration, said a press release of the IOM.

They also discussed a draft manual, being developed by the IOM, to assist the grassroots level workers of various civil society organisations to raise awareness among the potential migrants.