Missions to be asked to find out 'godfathers'
The government will ask Bangladesh missions abroad to send reports on 'godfathers' who control the recruitment process of workers in different countries, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said yesterday.
“The cost for migration of workers is very high. There are middlemen on both the sides. We are examining how to reduce migration cost," she said.
The foreign minister was speaking at a seminar on “Improving the role of the foreign ministry and embassies of Bangladesh for better services and protection of our workers” at Dhaka Sheraton hotel.
She said the government will investigate the allegation of involvement of criminals behind the increase in the cost of labour migration, which is no less than exploiting Bangladeshi workers abroad.
Dipu Moni made the remarks after some speakers at the seminar observed that trading on visas and unlawful activities by some criminals are the major problems for the Bangladeshi workers abroad. Besides, these tarnish the image of the country.
Referring to a number of problems in Bangladesh missions abroad, the minister said the government is taking steps to reshuffle the missions to make those migrant-friendly.
There remains lack of coordination among different units including labour and commerce wings, she said, adding that the present manpower structure in the missions is the same as it was in 1983 when there were around four lakh Bangladeshi migrants abroad. But the number of migrant workers is now around 65 lakh.
Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on foreign ministry, said the committee recommended that the officials of the labour wings in Bangladesh missions are appointed from among the foreign service cadres for the next two to three years or labour ministry officials posted to the labour wings are brought under foreign ministry during their jobs in the labour wings.
All other officials of a mission must be under the control of ambassador, Mahmood Ali said, adding that the allowance structure of the missions should also be changed.
In his keynote paper, Dhaka University Professor CR Abrar said workers' common perception is that embassy officials do not cooperate with them. Allocation for labour welfare and training up the officials to handle these issues in a foreign land are imperative.
The embassies should focus on the migrant workers who annually send around Tk 70,000 crore to the country, Abrar said.
Fakrul Alam Bashar, a Bangladeshi expatriate in Saudi Arabia, suggested providing incentive for increasing remittance flow in formal channels.
Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies President Ghulam Mustafa, expatriate Bangladeshi in Saudi Arabia Arifur Rahman and former ambassador Masud Aziz also spoke at the seminar moderated by former foreign secretary Mumammad Zamir.
Yesterday's seminar was one of a series under a three-day programme titled “First NRB (Non-resident Bangladeshis) manpower development & opportunities conference-2009” being organised by Scholar Bangladesh and Human Capital Development Limited.
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