Plight of our migrant workers

WHAT does this year's International Migrants Day signify for around one crore Bangladeshi migrant community abroad? In many ways 2014 has not been a blessing for them.

We have witnessed some horrible and callous migrants' rights violations in recent times -- rise in unnatural deaths of migrants, and cheating and beating of migrants in the destination countries. But the most grisly incidents are those involving trafficking and smuggling of thousands of Bangladeshi migrant jobseekers through the Bay of Bengal under false promises of providing jobs either in Malaysia or Thailand.

An estimated 53,000 people from Bangladesh and Myanmar have voyaged to Malaysia and Thailand through the sea this year, says a new report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). About 21,000 Rohingyas and Bangladeshis have made these voyages since October this year, a 37% increase over the same period last year. About 10% of them are believed to be women.

In all, some 120,000 people are believed to have embarked on these voyages through the Bay of Bengal since the beginning of 2012. While the majority of people paid smugglers for the journey, there were those who said they were forced into making the voyages, sometimes at gunpoint, in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

An estimated 540 people have reportedly died at sea this year from beatings, starvation or dehydration, and their bodies were thrown overboard, the report mentions.

People who asked for more food or tried to use the toilet out of turn were beaten by the armed crew on the deck above. So, this is the grim reality behind the contributions of our migrants to our economy -- around $ 14 billion a year.

They toil hard in foreign lands and remit their hard-earned money to the country. Do they really enjoy the expected services from their own government or their host governments in exchange of their hard labour?

The answer is that neither their own government nor the receiving government cares about their rights.

The migrants are 'profitable' for everybody -- recruiting agents/brokers, government at home and the employers abroad. It is well established that recruiting agents cheat and exploit the migrants in the name of sending them abroad, charging huge, irrational amounts as fees. Migrants who leave their families and country to change their fortunes face exploitation, discrimination and hatred from the beginning to the end of their migration period.

Every month, the incidents of the violation of rights of the Bangladeshi migrants are published in media. In many cases, it has been seen that the concerned Bangladeshi mission officials remain in darkness about their nationals' miseries.

It is true that the incumbent government has been trying to take some measures to protect the migrants at home and abroad. For instance, it is putting emphasis on reducing the migration costs and exploitation by private agencies and trying to include its participation in the direct migration process.

But there are controversies also over the government's initiatives. For example, the governments of Bangladesh and Malaysia signed a memorandum of understanding in 2012 to ensure smooth migration of workers to the Southeast Asian countries by curbing the involvement of private recruiters. It was expected that the migrant jobseekers would benefit from the system. Yes, the migration costs have come down from Tk. 2-2.5 lakh charged by the private agencies on average to less than Tk. 50,000. But the process can benefit only a handful of Bangladeshi jobseekers. Only some 8,000 migrants found jobs in Malaysia since April 2013 to November this year, according to the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur. On the contrary, we can see the rush of thousands of jobseekers through the Bay illegally in recent years.

Our expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry alleges that some private recruiters and their agents in Malaysia are trying to wreck the government's good initiative. Migration experts say the government needs to include the private recruiters in its process to send workers under effective and underpinning terms and conditions.

More than 90% Bangladeshis work in Middle Eastern countries. So, the incidents of cheating, exploitation and discrimination of our workers are higher there. Almost every day, some Bangladeshi male or female migrant are subjected to harassments in their workplaces by their employers, their employers' agents or the law enforcers.

Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit, (RMMRU), a reputed organisation working for the Bangladeshi migrants, states it has found that Bangladeshi labour attachés are not very efficient and sincere in dealing with the problems of the Bangladeshi migrants.

This year, migration of Bangladeshi women has exceeded all past records in numbers. But the rising number of unexpected abuses against our sisters working abroad definitely worries us. They become victims of abuse -- sexual and physical -- by their agents or employers.

Our labour attachés or mission officials respond in cases of emergency assistance sought by our migrants, but the response (or lack thereof) in most cases is still not satisfactory. The expatriates' welfare ministry is trying to appoint sufficient officials to the labour wings abroad, which, one hopes, can reduce the extent of pressure of serving around one crore migrants.

Besides, we are gradually losing potential labour markets for many reasons, for which the private recruiters, our existing migrants and our government are also responsible. This year, the total number of migrants may be 4,00,000 at the end of this month.

There are some imminent challenges for our government to protect migrants from exploitation and cheating as well as to ensure sufficient jobs for thousands of unemployed jobseekers. Finally, it is of utmost importance that we raise our collective voices to protect our people from all types of exploitation. If we can do that soon, we believe our migrants can enjoy their expected rights and we can finally “celebrate” International Migrant's Day.

The writer is a reporter, The Daily Star.