Stop Recruitment Racketeering

BANGLADESHI workers taking to the streets of the Saudi district of Al-Sharfiyah after having been denied of four months' salary brings into focus a double-barrelled disorder in matters related to overseas employment. First, non-resident Bangladeshis - two millions of them working world-wide and one-third of them working in Saudi Arabia alone - enjoy very little protection from the government in such cases despite the fact that they contribute immensely to the country's economy by way of remittance. Only last year, they sent home as much as 7,000 crore taka. Secondly, and crucially, gross irregularities are committed in matters of recruitment helping unscrupulous agents make merry at the expense of utter humiliation of the employment-seekers. On both counts, the government has its fair share of the blame, primarily for being apathetic in this regard. Seemingly, there is no mechanism in place, either to monitor the workers' status abroad or to properly regulate recruitment procedures at home. There appears to be a telling dearth of communication between the government and the host countries on the one hand, and between the government and the consulates on the other when troubles brew for the expatriates. Overall, for those, who entrust the manpower agents with their money and faith, overseas employment actually does not have so much a "rosy future" to offer.

Sadly, the Al-Sharfiyah episode is not a new phenomenon. We have read and heard about people being cheated by the "devious recruiters" in the past. On many occasions, job-hunters have landed in jail abroad before being deported back home, thanks to the "dubious dealings of brokers, agents and labour contractors". In fact, only on Tuesday, the Lebanese authorities deported 37 Bangladeshis stranded in their country since October after being "abandoned at sea by smugglers who promised to take them to Europe". The government hasn't been forthcoming towards redressal, raising, naturally, a strong suspicion over the likely presence of an unholy alliance between these recruiters and corrupt ministry officials.

We understand that the labour and manpower ministry is waiting for a report from the Bangladesh Embassy in Saudi Arabia to get a fuller picture of things and thereby initiate corrective measures. Our plea to the government is to take it as a test case and work out ways to ensure that people don't get deceived into the so-called 'rosy future'.