90pc migrant workers go abroad thru non-institutional channel: YPSA survey

Ninety percent of the migrant workers go abroad through non-institutional channel instead of government designated institutions, revealed a baseline survey yesterday.

Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), a Chittagong-based NGO, conducted the survey as part of YPSA-Fairer Labour Migration in Bangladesh Programme.

At a press briefing at a restaurant in Chittagong city yesterday, Abdus Sabur, manager of the programme, said 270 respondents participated in the survey in Rangunia upazila of Chittagong.

Seventy percent of the respondents did not know about recruiting agencies while 80 percent of them were unaware of District Employment and Manpower Office, and technical training centres.

Around 70 percent of them completed all their migration process through brokers.

As these labourers migrate through non-institutional channels, they remain deprived of logical remunerations and face other legal and financial hassles, Sabur added.

Mahbubur Rahman, director of YPSA, said the government should take initiatives to train aspirant workers and thereby enable them to establish themselves abroad.

To avoid hassles, migrant labourers will have to be sent abroad through government designated institutions, he said, adding that the labour welfare wing of Bangladesh embassies should be developed to ensure better service for migrants.

He also suggested that services of District Employment and Manpower Office should be made available at upazila level so that rural people can get proper information.