BANGLADESHI BREAD-WINNERS SHUNNED BY GOVT<br><br>An NNN-AMIC Special Report by Siraj Shahjahan<br>
<br>
DHAKA, Dec 22 (NNN-AMIC) -- There are more than seven million people
from Bangladesh who are working abroad, a significant portion of them
unskilled people, mainly men, who face many problems while overseas. <br>
<br>
The Bangladesh government it seems does not have any safety nets to help
them out when they are in trouble overseas, especially with non-payment
of wages and debt burdens resulting from hefty placement fees charged
by recruitment agents.<br>
<br>
"What is the reason for this problem ? That is the main reason indeed we
have to identify," says Hazrat Ali, the Assistant Secretary of the
Labour Ministry. "The people who are not skilled, they are facing
problems."<br>
<br>
"If these people remain in Bangladesh they would have been unemployed
and the government would have to take the responsibility for them for
their feeding, livelihood and all the other things. But as they are
migrating to other countries they are taking on their own responsibility
and with this migration, neither the government or the civil society
are supporting them," notes Shifa Hafiz, the Director of Gender Justice,
Diversity and Advocacy, at the non-governmental organization (NGO)
BRAC. <br>
<br>
"It is mostly through the recruiting agencies they are migrating. (These) recruiting agencies are exploiting them." <br>
<br>
Remittances have emerged as the key driver of economic growth in
Bangladesh, increasing at an average rate of 10 per cent annually for
the past 30 years. Revenues from remittances now exceed foreign exchange
inflows of both official development assistance (ODA) and net earnings
of exports. <br>
<br>
The bulk of these remittances are sent by migrant workers, working especially in the Middle East, under harsh conditions.<br>
<br>
There have been widespread allegations of ruthless exploitation of these
migrant workers by recruitment agents both in Bangladesh and overseas,
yet, though they are the major foreign exchange earners for the country,
the Bangladesh government has not been in the forefront in helping them
out.<br>
<br>
Tahmina's story is testimony to this fact. She is a poor rural woman
from the Dinajpur district whose husband died 17 years ago and she was
left with three sons and a daughter to support. Unable to feed them, she
decided to go overseas to work.<br>
<br>
"It was very hard to live and we could not have proper meal, so we came
to Dhaka. I was doing household work there and my elder son worked in a
stall. After some time I joined a garments factory. I had a neighbour,
Ruston Ali, who said I should go abroad for a better life. He told that
his wife work in Dubai and he would help me to go there. I had to pay
80,000 Taka (about 1,135 USD)," she explained.<br>
<br>
"I said it is a very big amount for me. But he said try hard if you can
manage the money to go there, after few days you can take your son
there. Then he got me a passport and medical tests were done. He said,
that if I try to manage the rest of the money my visa will come soon.
Then after one month he said my visa has come and demanded the rest of
the money. I had to take a forty thousand Taka loan from a person at 10
per cent interest and give him the money. Then after 15 days he came to
me and said today is your flight. When I had reached the airport he told
me that I am going to Lebanon. I said I will not go to Lebanon, but he
convinced me and said that I will get good salary, near twelve thousand
taka (USD 170) a month."<br>
<br>
Her first week in Lebanon went smoothly, but after that troubles
started. "They were very cruel to me," Thamina recalled. "They didn't
give me proper meals. They tortured me physically and mentally. For six
months I didn't eat rice. I was very ill in that time then one day my
son called me. I told him everything, and said that please save me from
here. He went to Rustom Ali. He demanded 70,000 taka more to bring me
home. My son didn't have the money but he was trying. Then suddenly he
found BRAC and BRAC rescued me from Lebanon."<br>
<br>
Such exploitation happens because some people are made to believe by
recruitment agents that in the Middle East, the streets are virtually
paved in gold. So they sell all their assets to go overseas to reach
that pot of gold only to find later that they have been misled. <br>
<br>
This is another of such stories as told by a former migrant labourer who went to Saudi Arabia, who did not want to be named.<br>
<br>
"I went to Saudi Arabia with the help of a relative after paying 400,000
taka. I worked there as a caretaker of sheep but my boss didn't give me
any money," he said, adding, "They didn't even give me proper food. My
boss came some time in a while and he brought chicken for us. But when I
demanded my salary he became very angry and beat me. Eleven months I
didn't get any salary."<br>
<br>
Since he was not paid he left the job and went first to work in Mecca,
where a Bangladeshi gave him a job and paid him 49,000 taka after two
months. "I requested one of my co-worker to help me to send the money to
my family. He took all the money and called the police. Then the police
arrested me and put me in jail. The police destroyed all of my
documents and took the little amount of money I had," he explained. "I
wasn't able to get any help from anyone. I was one month in the Jail and
then senr back to my country."<br>
<br>
Before he went to Saudi Arabia he had a farm in Bangladesh with almost
900 ducks. "I had sold the farm and also sold some of the land to go to
Saudi Arabia. Now I work as a day labourer and my wife works in a
garments factory," he said. <br>
<br>
The Bangladesh government is well aware that their workers are being
exploited like this but argues that they cannot stop people from going
abroad. As Hazrat Ali explains, "We cannot stop it because the people of
our country always think that if they can go abroad they will get
something like a golden dear.<br>
<br>
"But, shouldn't the government take responsibility to educate the
people? Even change their mindsets? They have been cheated through the
recruiting agencies, middle man (because) they don't have any proper
information," argues Saiful Haque, the Chief of WARB Foundation. <br>
<br>
"There should be a regulatory framework where the recruiting agencies
and the middleman can go through some of the regulatory process where
they cannot cheat the migrant workers. There is not much law in our
country (to protect) migrant workers, but the recruiting agencies have
their business protection.<br>
<br>
"The government has set up vocational training centres to send out more
skilled workers overseas with the hope that they will earn more and
remit home more. But, they have not moved, even though legislation
exists, to crack down on unscrupulous recruitment agents who exploit the
migrant workers."<br>
<br>
Shifa Hafiz of BRAC argues that labour migration in Bangladesh should be
seen as a human rights issue. "Most often when the labor migrants enter
the aircraft they are becoming undocumented. The documents are mostly
kept by the recruiting agency, particularly in case of female migrants,
they are taking the female migrants outside of the countries and once
they are outside these female migrants have no address, no connection
with the outside world even with their own family. So whenever they are
either sick, ill, pregnant or even if they are dead they have no
identification. So migration is very much a violation of human rights in
this country," she observes. <br>
<br>
"Nobody is taking the responsibility for the poor migrants who are
earning currency for the country and totally sacrificing their life for
the livelihood for their families."<br>
-- NNN-AMIC <br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div>------------------------<br><b>Shahjahan </b><b>Siraj</b><br><font size="1">Director</font><font size="1">, Machizo Multimedia Communication<br><br>House- 35, Flat-D5, Road-12 A ( new ), Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka - 1209, Bangladesh <br>
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