Lawmakers, senior officials and migrants’ rights activists on Thursday expressed grave concern as the Bangladeshi migrants were forced to pay high migration cost for overseas jobs.

They observed that migrant workers were often getting cheated by brokers at home and especially female workers were frequently facing abuses, tortures, denial of wages and other problems at the destination countries.

They made their observations while speaking at the ‘Hearing on Migrants Rights Violation for Ensuring Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration,’ organized by the Parliamentarians Caucus on Migration and Development at the Parliament Members Club in the city.

Deputy speaker of the parliament Fazle Rabbi Miah MP who was chief guest at the hearing said that middlemen were getting more benefitted by sending workers abroad than earning by migrants.

‘In the past, if any person managed to go abroad with job, could make brick-built house at village. But now more buildings are being built by brokers,’ he said.

He asked the expatriates welfare and overseas employment ministry to research what would more beneficial between incomes of workers abroad and the investment at home with migration cost.

‘There are many Bangladeshi migrant workers who were getting cheated with jobs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Malaysia,’ he said.

He also said that migrants were going abroad paying four times of government set migration cost but the concerned ministry was yet to take action. 

Member of Parliamentarians Caucus on Migration and Development Roksana Yesmin Suty said that the housemaids were able to earn monthly Tk 15000 to Tk 20,000 in Dhaka city by working on hours.

She stressed the need for taking proper steps to create mass awareness about safe migration at the grassroots level.

Another caucus member Hosne Ara Lutfa Dalia who presided over the hearing said that there were many victim migrant workers who returned home facing problems abroad.

WARBE Development Foundation’ secretary general Faruque Ahmed said that the sending of housemaids to the KSA and other Arab countries londontoto should be stopped if the government failed to take protective measures for them.

‘Sending female workers under conditions is matter of prestige,’ he said

The proposal of the establishment of dormitories for Bangladeshi housemaids in Saudi Arabia could bring positive result as they would be able to share experience with other Bangladeshi female workers at night, said Faruque, also a returned migrant.

Manusher Jonno Foundation’s director Rina Roy said that the lack of responsibilities of all stakeholders was obstacles in ensuring safe and orderly migration from Bangladesh.

‘Workers must be skilled to send abroad,’ she said.

BAIRA’s joint secretary General Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman said that without taking  help of Bangladesh missions abroad, no recruiting agency could bring back the victim migrant from destination.

EWOE ministry’s additional secretary Ahmed Munerus Saleheen said that due to high cost of migration, the workers were forced to get engaged with illegal workers in destination countries.

WARBE Development Foundation chairman Syed Saiful Haque who moderated the hearing said that huge amount of money was being used in the visa trading in KSA, causing to decline remittance inflow.

Anwar Hossain from Tangail said that he paid Tk 3.2 lakh to broker for a job in Malaysia but he was sent to Malaysia on tourist visa.

‘Passport was given at airport about 14 minutes before my plane take off, so I could not check the visa,’ he cried.

Rupa Begum of Naogoan had gone to Saudi Arabia on February in 2017. After arrival she found that employer was not good, so she called her husband to rescue her.

Her husband Mozammel Haque said that despite paying Tk 2.5 lakh more to local recruiting office, his wife could not be rescued till now.

Returnee migrant Alaya Begum said that her Arab employer did not provide her wage, rather he told her that he bought her from Bangladesh.

Md Halim of Naraynganj said that he had to spend about three years in Oman on various challenges but he could never get any cooperation from officials of the Bangladesh embassy in Mascot.

Migrationnewsbd.com/ob