The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

Regional and local migration and labour experts on Wednesday recommended simplified recruitment process of the overseas workers by reducing layers between employers and workers to check ill practice of the recruiting agencies.

They also suggested developing a code of conduct for recruiting agencies in the SAARC countries as well as reviewing policies, laws and regulation in the light of evolving developments in the global labour market to protect the rights of migrant workers abroad.

The recommendations came at the end of the two-day symposium organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment and supported by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation at a city hotel.

The symposium was participated by representatives from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka and host Bangladesh.

After holding three plenary sessions and three parallel technical sessions, the experts presented a set of recommendations and directions for actions at the concluding session of the symposium.

Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Secretary Abdul Matin Chowdhury gave the closing remarks while chief technical advisor of ILO/EU Asian programme on the governance of labour migration Manolo Abella presented the summary and recommendations.

The symposium was organised to address various constraints and hindrances that impede the safety, security and dignity of migrant people worldwide, especially in Asian region.

The experts recommended promoting dialogue between origin and destination countries to identify weakness and gaps in governance, build confidence and goodwill and strengthen cooperation.

With a view to minimizing the cost of migration to the migrants, current approaches to licensing should be reviewed and assessment of financial and market capability of recruitment agencies need to carry out, they said.

They also suggested developing gender sensitive labour migration policies as well as removing discriminatory barriers to labour migration of women to check women trafficking. The migration experts suggested inclusion of the labour migration issue in the agenda of the forthcoming SAARC summit as remittance to South Asia totaled US$ 43 billion in 2007, of these, US$ 27 billion went to India, US $ 6.4 billion to Bangladesh, US$ 6.1 billion to Pakistan, US$ 2.7 billion to Sri Lanka and US$ 1.6 billion to Nepal.

The 'direction for action', formulated during the symposium, proposed strengthening capacity of diplomatic missions in terms of personnel, funds and logistics to look after the well-being of migrant workers.

It also suggested committed professionalism for recruitment service providers through training and certification as well as promoting standardisation and certification of skills across borders.

The 'direction for action' included setting up migrant resource centers in countries of origin, ensuring private sector participation in the global forum on migration to promote equal and fair treatment of migrant workers.

Abdul Matin Chowdhury said the government took various steps including strengthening the embassies abroad, providing skill development training to the prospective workers and carrying out mass awareness campaign to ensure the rights of the Bangladeshi migrant workers.

He underlined the need for close and effective cooperation between the sending and receiving countries to resolve constraints in the migration process. The country sent 8.32 lakh workers to various countries for jobs and earned US$ 6.57 billion in 2007. The government has set a target to send a record one million workers abroad this year.

Nearly 60 experts, including 29 from foreign countries, participated in the workshop.