Making the middlemen visible

After years of advocacy from migrant rights groups, the government amended the The Overseas Employment and Migrants  Act by publishing a gazette on September 21, recognising roles of  sub-agents in labour migration sector.

A bill was passed in the parliament in this regard on September 4.

Experts are now urging the government to immediately formulate rules to begin registration of sub-agents.

The act states that rules must be formulated to determine the registration process of sub-agents or representatives and determine their roles and responsibilities.

The Overseas Employment and Migrants (Amendment) Act-2023 defines a "sub-agent" or "representative" as a registered person who collects migrant workers for overseas employment as per the recruiting agent's demand.

WHO ARE SUB-AGENTS?

According to the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), sub-agents, known as intermediaries or middlemen, play a crucial role in recruiting migrants from the grassroots.

RMMRU, in its e-book "Making Dalals Visible: Towards Transparency in Recruitment'', published in 2019, identified 18 types of services provided by sub-agents to migrant workers in three stages, from providing information on migration to accompanying them to the airport during departure.

However, they had been invisible in the whole migration cycle until the law's amendment, leaving a loophole to address fraudulence effectively.

An average of 6.56 lakh migrant workers have gone abroad annually in the past 10 years, according to the data of Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training.

Contacted, Senior Secretary Ahmed Munirus Saleheen of the Expatriates' Welfare Ministry said they have been working on the rules, and a draft copy could be finalised by the end of December this year.

"Under the current circumstances, they [sub-agents] play an important role [in labour migration] while remaining undetectable," he said.

He said the amendment, the subsequent creation of rules, and their enforcement would be very important for ensuring safe and orderly migration, and lowering the costs of migration.

The ministry needs input from a variety of stakeholders to create the rules, he added.

HOW THE ACT DEFINES SUB-AGENT

The act defines a "sub-agent" or "representative" as a registered person who collects migrant workers for overseas employment as per the recruiting agent's demand.

It says a recruiting agent will be able to appoint a person registered as a sub-agent under a process determined by rules, and their role and responsibility will also be determined by rules.

According to the law, a recruiting agent will be punished with a one-year jail term or up to a Tk 5,00,000 fine for appointing a sub-agent while violating the law, and an unregistered person acting as a sub-agent will be handed a one-year jail term or up to a Tk 2,00,000 fine.

RMMRU founding chair Prof Tasneem Siddiqui said the law's amendment will not only help make sub-agents accountable, but be crucial to holding recruiting agents accountable.

She said BMET, as a regulatory body under the expatriates' welfare ministry, should play the main role in holding sub-agents accountable.

For this, BMET should maintain a database of registered sub-agents, which will help it make them accountable more effectively, she added.

Syed Saiful Haque, chairman of Warbe Development Foundation, said recognition of sub-agents was a necessity to ensure fair recruitment and protect migrant workers from fraudulence and debt bondage.

He emphasised the need for speedy formulation of the rules and their implementation and said sub-agents should be provided with identification cards once they are formally enlisted.

Ali Haider Chowdhury, secretary general of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira), said discussions are needed with recruiting agents and other stakeholders before formulating the rules.

He said Baira can play its role in ensuring accountability in the sector.