International Migrants Day: Comprehensive programme needed for returnee migrants
Dalia (23) returned home in August from Saudi Arabia, with a broken spinal cord and leg from jumping off the fourth floor of a building to save herself from torture by her employer there.
With dreams of a better future, she had gone to Saudi Arabia in July last year. However, she is now abandoned by her husband, as a “disabled” woman -- a burden for his family.
Moktar Hossain (28), who returned from Malaysia a few months back, was a little luckier than Dalia. He got a head injury as a result of torture, which has not fully cured.
However, he has managed to get job in a catering service in Dhaka with the help of the migration department of Brac.
Dalia and Muktar are just two of the hundreds of returnee migrant workers, who find it difficult to find ground beneath their feet after coming back from a life of misery there.
In most cases, these returnee migrant workers fail to be reintegrated socially as well as economically.
In fact, the government has no comprehensive programme for them.
The government should initiate a comprehensive programme integrating civil society organisations (CSO) to this end, speakers at a national-level consultation said yesterday.
The migration department of Brac organised the event at its headquarters in the capital. Shariful Islam Hasan, head of Brac’s migration programme, presented a concept paper on “Returnee reintegration and CSOs’ role”, where he termed returnee migration a “new crisis”.
“However, neither government officials nor the CSOs have exact knowledge on their reintegration process,” he said.
Referring to different studies, he said some 34 percent of the migrant workers failed to meet their expectations: “Bangladesh is a country with highest migration cost and the lowest migrant-labour income,” he added. Currently, more than one crore Bangladeshis are living abroad as migrant workers, but there is no database on the return of these workers, he mentioned.
In addition to strengthening supervision at home, there is a need for taking care of migrant workers abroad to solve their problems, he recommended.
He recommended for a policy from the government in this regard.
At the programme, representatives from different CSOs recommended sending skilled workers, punishing errant agencies, and soft loans to financially support returnees. Speaking as chief guest, Gazi Mohammad Julhash, director general of the Wage Earners Welfare Board [WEWB] said, “We [the government] can provide economic support. But we need cooperation from the CSOs for implementation, as we have shortage of human resources.”
He informed that WEWB is going to set up offices in all divisional headquarters as if migrant workers can easily get support.
“We [WEWB] have recommended to adopt migrant workers’ issues at programmes of all ministries,” he said. “Once it is implemented, migrant workers and their families would get more protection.”
He also assured that WEWB would work on soft loans for returnee migrant workers.
Each year, more than 20 lakh people are entering the labour market in Bangladesh, different studies show. Due to massive unemployment and other reasons, some 82 percent of the youth intend to leave country, according to World Economic Forum.
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