Dr. Uttam Kumar Das
Bangladesh is a major country of origin for migrant workers. It is estimated that more than seven million Bangladeshis are now working and living abroad. It has a huge potential given the demand overseas for workers and challenges with lack of governance and malpractices in the sector.
The term migrant workers refers to a person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national (Art 2 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, 1990).
In this article, the migrant workers are referred to those who are going abroad temporarily with contractual jobs.
Given the over population in Bangladesh, limited resources, and limited number of available jobs both in public and private sectors we are having difficulty in absorbing all our active and working people joining the workforce each year.
On the other hand, countries in the Western Europe, North America, Africa and even in the Eastern Asia need migrant workers to meet up their need to run the industries, construction works, health, hospitality, and service sectors among others.
The country could earn a record amount of US$ 9.6 billion as remittances during 2008-2009 fiscal year. In the year of 2009, the amount was again nearly US$ 10 billion (74,000 crore Taka) though the year was hit by the global economic recession. Actually, the remittance remained almost steady though the number of migrating population get down to almost half (475,000) in 2009.
There has been a prediction that by 2015 we could go to earn an annual target of US$ 30 billion as remittances if we could expand overseas job markets, make our migrant workers skilled, and remittances are sent through official channels.
So far we have no tangible progress in this regard. According to a senior official of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), the country has reached an amount of US$ 15 billion as remittances by 2015 if the existing trend of migration continues.
In the present scenario, the labour migration sector has been facing the following challenges: lack of initiative to make the potential migrants more skilled and efficient for the prospective jobs, lack of capacity, governance, responsibility and accountability both in public and private sectors with regard to managing the ever growing demand, growing incidents of abuses and exploitations in the migration processes at home and abroad (some of which are tantamount to human trafficking), lack of administrative and legal framework to prevent and prosecute those wrong doings effectively etc.
Though there have been some initiatives for offering training to the potential migrants through government run training centers, however, those are not systematic, and not up to the mark to meet the need of the present global standard. Our workers lack in skills of language and attitude and manner as well.
That is why our migrant workers find them helpless while they are joining in the real work abroad.
The workers from Philippines or Sri Lanka who are adequately skilled could bargain for their services and are less vulnerable for their empowerment being skilled and could earn two to five times more for the same work and time in comparison with Bangladeshi workers.
The skill training provided by the so-called private recruiting or other agencies are simply a way of grabbing money from the innocent migrants.
Though there are nearly 800 Recruiting Agencies, however, government does not have adequate monitoring mechanism and schemes to oversee their activities. Also, there is no training program as such for the staff members of those agencies on ethics, human rights and other related issues. The apex body of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) is also failing to make effective monitoring over its respective members and combating unholy recruiting practices by its members.
There have been unholy networks and competitions among the Recruiting Agencies and their agents at home and abroad. That is why the migration costs are scoring high violating the amount prescribed by the government. Where the employers are paying pre-migration remittances for hiring a female migrant worker, on the contrary the Recruiting Agencies are charging a significant amount from them (migrant). These practices do force a migrant to sell out his/her belongings or take loan with exorbitant interest rates. That is also contributing to landlessness of exploited migrants (both male and female) as a 2008 study of the International Organiz-ation for Migration (IOM) conducted by Professor Mokaddem Hossian and Professor Mahbuba Nasreen in Bangladesh shown.
We are very much focused on the total amount of the remittances earned annually; however, unfortunately, we are not focusing on the individual exploitations and violations of rights of an individual migrant. That is why there is need to make a balance between the two.
Though the Constitution of the country guarantees equal protection of law, and freedom from all forms of exploitations, unfortunately, those guarantees are not working in case of the sufferings of the migrant workers. The respective state machineries are failing in this respect. The National Human Rights Commission should take note of that.
The capacities of the related government agencies, i.e., Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment (MOEWOE), Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) and District Employment and Manpower Office (DEMO) do not have sufficient manpower to manage this huge sector.
Although most of our migrant workers are going abroad through their own connections or through the Recruiting Agencies, however, the government has an overall role to monitor, regulate and govern the sector.
The manpower at all the related agencies mentioned are not adequate in number as required and not qualified, trained or motivated for their respective jobs for so many reasons. There is also lack of budgetary, logistical and other constraints.
The total number of Labour Attaches is now 14 who are based in 12 countries. Those officers are deputed from the administration and other cadres. There has been demand for a permanent cadre for the Labour Attaches who would be adequately trained and could manage the sector either working at home or abroad.
The Secretary to the MOEWOE, Dr. Zafar Ahmed Khan mentioned at a seminar in Dhaka on 11 October 2010 that though there is a huge contribution to our remittances by the migrant workers, however, the sector is not getting adequate attention of the government, and there is no well-coordinated planning so far. According to him, the growth of remittances flow since 2001 is 17% per year on an average. The official remittances flow is 13% GDP. It is 12 and 6 times more respectively of the Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
However, as he exampled, the ERD has four times more staff members than the MOEWOE, where the former (ERD) manage an annual aid flow of nearly US$ 1.5 billion.
There is a lack of comprehensive legal framework to govern the migration sector. The major legal instrument, the Emigration Ordinance, 1982 (complemented by three Rules in 2002), does not have sufficient scope to protect the rights of the migrant workers in case of their violations of rights. There is lack of remedial measures and activities due to “narrow provision” in related law, and also lack of understanding and training on other alternative laws. Therefore, there is a growing acknowledgment for adoption of a comprehensive legal framework to manage the migration sector efficiently (i.e. along with a law penalizing human trafficking in the form of labour migration and related exploitations).
The reported corruption by those who are managing and running the migration activities needs to be intervened. This is allegedly happening in processing recruitment order, issuing clearance and immigration processes.
Bangladesh also did not ratify the major human rights treaty dealing with the migrants workers, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, 1990 (the Convention). The country has signed it on 7 October 1998, though the Law Commission had recommended for its ratification that time.
It is now widely acknowledge that Bangladesh should ratify the Convention immediately. The ratification would boost country’s image with regard to its commitment for promoting and protecting human rights; at the same time it would contribute to the streamlining the administrative and legal frameworks and measures and initiating related institutional mechanisms among others as demanded by the Convention. However, only ratification will bring no benefit if it is not adopted in the domestic legislation and implemented progressively. In this case, the above-mentioned points deserve serious consideration.
There are quarters with their vested interests who are opposing the ratification of the Convention and reform in the migration management.
As a legal researcher and practitioner, I do observe that there will be no additional obligations (other than the Constitutional and other obligations already in place through ratification of other related international human rights instruments) on Bangladesh, if it ratifies the Convention.
I am also worried with one phenomenon: there are bunch of studies, series of meetings, discussions, or consultations on migration sectors by various stake holders including by the government and the development partners (of course there are duplications as well).
The MOEWOE has drafted a 9-point strategy paper in 2007. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) undertook five studies including the review of the overall labour migration sector of Bangladesh. All the reports had reportedly been submitted to respective ministries and departments. However, there is no reported follow-up activity so far. There are initiatives by others. All those need a well-coordination.
Also, there is lack of effective coordination among the related ministries and departments in managing and regulating the migration sector. There should be working coordination among them (especially, the MOEWOE, and ministries like Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs among others).
Given the importance of the sector, there is a dire need to establish a center of excellence, devoted training, research, publication and advocacy on migration related issues at national, regional and international level. Also, a higher authority under the Office of the Prime Minister should work to bring coordination among the activities.
We also need to incorporate migration related courses at our mainstream education from higher to university levels (i.e., as part of social science, human rights and legal course). That will contribute to have a pool of future government officials, administrators, academics, diplomats, lawyers, judges among others sensitized on migration issues.
Curriculum of specialized training institutes like Bangladesh Public Administration Training Center, Bangladesh Civil Service Academy, Bangladesh Institute of Administration Management, Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development, Foreign Service Academy, Judicial Administration Training Institution, Bangladesh Bar Council among others should introduce migration issues in their training curriculum. That would contribute immediately to have a pool of government officials and other practitioners to manage, bargain, and negotiate effectively activities related to migration sector.
Dr. Uttam Kumar Das is Deputy Director, South Asian Institute of Advanced Legal and Human Rights Studies (SAILS), Dhaka.
* Originally appeared in the Daily Sun newspaper in Dhaka as a serialized article on 5, 6, and 7 November 2010. Links:
http://www.daily-sun.com/index.php?view=details&archiev=yes&arch_date=05-11-2010&type=daily_sun_news&pub_no=31&menu_id=17&news_type_id=1&news_id=5452
http://www.daily-sun.com/index.php?view=details&archiev=yes&arch_date=06-11-2010&type=daily_sun_news&pub_no=32&menu_id=17&news_type_id=1&news_id=5681
http://www.daily-sun.com/index.php?view=details&archiev=yes&arch_date=07-11-2010&type=daily_sun_news&pub_no=33&menu_id=17&news_type_id=1&news_id=5916
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