Mandatory insurance for migrant workers launched

“Mandatory insurance” for migrant workers was launched yesterday at the expatriates welfare ministry. Wage Earners Welfare Board (WEWB) Director General Gazi Mohammad Julhash and Jiban  Bima Corporation (JBC ) Managing Director Mahfuzul Hoque signed an agreement on behalf of their  respective organisations in this regard.

As per the initiative, the government will bring migrant workers  under two schemes -- of Tk 2 lakh and Tk 5 lakh -- with the aim to  provide financial security to migrant workers and their families.

Both schemes will be for two years and migrant workers, aged between 18 and 58 years, will be eligible.

At the event, Expatriates Welfare Minister Imran Ahmad said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will formally hand over the “first  policy” of the insurance on December 19 at a ceremony, marking International Migrants Day.

“We will take steps so that no migrant worker can depart the country without insurance,” he added.

He also said the ministry will take an initiative soon to involve Bangladeshi diaspora living across the globe in the country’s development.

“There should be a diaspora policy,” he said.

In  India and China, diaspora communities are now investing billions of  dollars and contributing to the development of their respective country  of origin directly, the minister said.

Such investment by Bangladeshi diaspora communities is not yet noticeable, he added.

Secretary to the Expatriates Welfare Ministry, Salim Reza, said they will have to give a subsidy of about Tk 35 crore annually for the insurance -- taking into consideration 7,00,000 migrant workers going for overseas employment on an average each year.

At present, a deceased migrant worker’s family gets Tk 3 lakh from the government as compensation. The insurance money will be added to that amount, he said.

Senior Secretary Ashadul Islam of Financial Institutions Division, Expatriates Welfare Ministry’s Additional Secretary Ahmed Munirus Saleheen and JBC Chairperson Shelina Afroza, among others, addressed the ceremony.