Call for global voice to ensure migrants' safety
There should be a global voice for ensuring safety of migrants, with both the sending and destination countries taking responsibility, migration experts and law enforcing officials opined yesterday.
They were exchanging views on a study titled “Labour forms of human trafficking in Bangladesh” conducted by Winrock International, a non-government organisation, with the support of USAID, at the city's Brac Centre Inn.
They added that the government should enact a specific law against human trafficking, as there is none present to address human trafficking and related criminal acts like kidnapping, wrongful confinement or forced labour.
Speakers also alleged that, on an average, nine migrant labourers die everyday and their families receive no compensation. Usually destination countries do not conduct investigation, as Bangladesh could not coerce them, they added.
In reply, Kamal Uddin Ahmed, joint secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs, said the law ministry is enacting an anti-trafficking law to safeguard people seeking jobs abroad.
Bangladesh, as a host of upcoming fourth ministerial conference of Colombo Process, a forum of manpower exporting Asian countries, will ask member countries to ensure “migration with dignity” for Bangladeshi migrants, he added.
Those who survived the ordeal should be provided psychological counselling and mental support to resolve their problems in livelihood, they said.
The study, conducted in Dhaka, Comilla, Sylhet, Laxmipur, Nilphamary and Cox's Bazar districts, focused on 63 adult males who were able to return after being trafficked.
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