Tk 50,000 for each

The government will provide around Tk 50,000 to each of the migrant workers who returned home from Libya amid political violence in the North African country.
"The grant for the returnees, to help them with their immediate resettlement, will not be less than fifty thousand taka each," Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain told reporters at a media briefing at the ministry yesterday.
He said the World Bank agreed to provide $40 million soft loan to the government. From that fund, the government will pay $12.6 million to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) as the cost of repatriating 10,000 Bangladeshis.
The grant to be given to the affected returnees is however in no way compensation, Mosharraf said, adding that many workers returned penniless without salaries of two to three months, and helping them in resettlement is a necessity.
The government is also approaching the employers, so they pay the arrears owed to the returnees, he said.
The minister thanked IOM for playing a crucial role in repatriating Bangladeshis, and for bearing the repatriation cost of a good number of them.
Of the total 35,211 returnees from Libya until April 17, IOM repatriated 27,101. Excluding the cost of repatriating 10,000 being borne by the government, IOM already spent around $22 million to repatriate the rest out of its own fund.
IOM spent $1,260 to repatriate each migrant, which is higher than the usual cost because the agency had to charter flights, Mosharraf said.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines, which already flew home 4,265 workers from Egypt and Tunisia, said the cost has been $800 per person on an average.
"We already sent a bill to the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment asking for more than 31 crore taka," said Biman Managing Director Zakiul Islam.
Apart from IOM and Bangladesh Biman, some of the employers also repatriated 3,845 migrants on company cost from Libya via Turkey and Greece, while some others returned on their own.
At the moment, more Bangladeshis are fleeing Libya. On April 16, around 600 Bangladeshis fled Libya and crossed into Egypt, said a foreign ministry press release.
IOM is facing a shortage of fund, said an IOM official.
Against such a backdrop, Asian countries, that send workers abroad, are meeting in Dhaka from today till Thursday, where the Arab world crisis will feature prominently in the agenda.
Asian workers in Bahrain are also facing problems like joblessness. A Bangladeshi and a Pakistani were killed there in March, while dozens of other migrant workers were injured.
An official in Bangladesh embassy in Bahrain said around 10,000 undocumented Bangladeshis are facing joblessness in that country, which is currently under a state of emergency due to an acute political crisis. The embassy requested Bahrain to provide documents for them so they may get jobs.
"Such a crisis is a wake up call for all of us. We, the Asian countries, have to take a stance about what actions we can take in such emergencies," said Mosharraf.