Female migrant jobseekers must be skilled

Speakers yesterday said female migrant jobseekers should improve their potential by learning relevant skills to get better employment abroad.

It will also ensure better working condition for migrant workers and chances to get higher pay, they added. 

The speakers were talking in a seminar on Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on Women Migrant Workers: potential, challenges and strategies, organised by welfare and overseas employment ministry and UN Women in the capital.

State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki said female migrant jobseekers can choose nursing as a profession as there is a huge demand of it abroad.

The minister also emphasised that female migrant jobseekers know basic language and have some cultural knowledge of the country where they will go to work and that they maintain regular communication with their family members while abroad.

Expatriates' Welfare Minister Nurul Islam said 7 lakh female migrant workers have been employed so far in different countries. In 2017, a total 1, 21,925 skilled and semi-skilled females have been employed abroad. The Bangladesh embassies overseas are monitoring their food, salary, security health treatment and problems said Nurul.

Shoko Ishikawa, country representative of UN Women Bangladesh said social media should be used in forums for Bangladeshi migrant workers to share their ideas and experiences. The seminar was participated by development and social partners and civil society where they recommended improving working condition and access to skills development opportunities and better jobs.