Govt fails to cut down lobour migration costs: Experts

Labour and migrant rights activists today expressed frustrations over the failures of Bangladesh government in cutting the migration cost for sending workers to abroad, despite its repeated attempts over the years.

Bangladeshi migrant workers are being exploited by an unethical nexus of brokers, middlemen and recruiting agencies involved in unfair recruitment systems, they alleged at a discussion on “Business Mechanism Meeting with Private Sectors Towards GFMD” under the banner of Bangladesh Civil Society Coordination Committee (BCSCC).

‘Warbe Development Foundation’ organised the programme with assistance from British Council’s Promoting Knowledge for Accountability Systems (Prokas) in a hotel in Dhaka.

Addressing as the chief guest, lawmaker Israfil Alam said it is sadly true that the government could not succeed in reducing migration costs despite its repeated attempts.

“The government has fixed Tk 1.65 lakh as migration costs for a worker to go to Saudi Arabia. But the reality is that a worker has to spend at least Tk 4 to Tk 5 lakh,” he said adding that the recruiting agents are not following the government’s direction.

But the migration costs are very tolerable in the neighbouring countries like India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, he observed.