Working to bring down migration cost: minister

Expatriates' Welfare Minister Imran Ahmad yesterday said they are taking measures and putting out new rules to ensure that migrant workers do not pay a price that would cripple them economically.

"We want to bring it down to an acceptable level," the minister said.

He was addressing a programme marking the launch of "Returning Migrants Management of Information Systems" (ReMiMIS), a digital database on returnee migrants, at the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) in the capital. The ministry with support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched the platform.

The minister said if possible they would go for a policy that the destination countries will pay the full migration cost for whoever goes from Bangladesh.

"Certain issues did come up regarding the migration cost and how we handle the whole flow chain as far as migration is concern," he added.

The minister said migrant workers going on a zero cost basis is the ideal situation. "But… there are always other factors that come in," he added.

He said they would like to make sure that they can be as close to zero migration cost as possible.

Addressing the ceremony as chief guest, Imran Ahmad also urged the Head of European Union delegation to Bangladesh Rensje Teerink to make easier the conditions for migration to or employment in the EU countries.

"Then… people will think of going to Europe in the legal process," he said, adding that a lot of people going through unofficial channels to Europe turned out to be a fact since they kept getting reports in this regard.

ReMiMIS

First of its kind in the country, ReMiMIS will contribute to better migration data management and development of targeted reintegration support programmes, according to officials and experts involved in the process.

In addition, stakeholders will have access to information on the skills profiles of returnee migrants and potentially contribute to skills transfers to communities and sectors in demand.

Furthermore, the data will support policymakers to understand the needs and vulnerabilities of returnees and help facilitate the creation of targeted and evidence-based reintegration and safety-net programmes.

ReMiMIS was developed under the European Union-funded project titled "Bangladesh: Sustainable Reintegration and Improved Migration Governance (Prottasha)".

It is a web-based application that features data dashboards on the information of the status of returnees by age, sex, education, country of destination, and skills.

BMET is the admin user and controls user access. It will work closely with the union development centers and district employment and manpower offices to input returnees' data into the system.

Formally launching the database, the minister said the need for a database on returnee migrants became very essential amid the Covid-19 crisis.

He said the new database has to be integrated with the existing BMET database to have a comprehensive database of both outbound and returnee migrants.

He said nearly 4,00,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers returned home amid the pandemic. "If we cannot use them gainfully, then all the trainings and all the experiences attained abroad will be of no use…," he added.

He also stressed for putting mutual recognition of certificates on agendas of bilateral meetings and enhancing language training capacity.

ReMiMIS is a good example of the government's pledge to ensure regular, orderly, and safe migration from Bangladesh, said Giorgi Gigauri, chief of mission, IOM Bangladesh.

"We applaud the government's ongoing efforts to develop a migration management system that generates new evidence, contributes to improve protection of migrant workers, and enables communities to benefit from the dividends of migration," he said.

Rensje Teerink said ReMiMIS will facilitate the work of the EU, implementing partners and government agencies to reach their target population.

But most importantly, it will also help in the long run the government to develop solid evidence-based policies to ensure that returnees contribute to the economic development of Bangladesh, she said.

Ahmed Munirus Saleheen, secretary of expatriates' welfare ministry, and Shamsul Alam, director general of BMET, among others, addressed the event.