Editorial
Doubling of overseas employment
But have the working conditions improved?
IT is very good news that according to government figures, overseas employment of Bangladeshis in 2007 has doubled over 2006. By implication, therefore, we can assume that remittances in this account must have also increased proportionately. And that is what compels us to posit the question whether the conditions of our workers abroad have improved correspondingly in the last one year?
We are saddened by the news that appear regularly in the media about the plight of Bangladeshis who seek greener pastures abroad, getting a raw deal in the process. And it seems that there is very little that we are able to do to ameliorate their sufferings. Some of them run up huge debts for a job abroad.
The ordeal of the migrant workers starts from home, when they are forced to cough up double the amount fixed by the government for all the relevant documents including their airline ticket, to the manpower agencies. This is a fact known to all yet there has been no effort to put an end to the agencies' unethical practice. And even then not all the relevant papers are found to be in order when the workers land up in the host country.
Even worse is the ordeal in the receiving country where obscure and unclear terms of employment land these workers in jobs that they did not barter their life's savings and energy for. The case in point is the sordid tale of 34 workers returned home from Malaysia, having suffered not only at the hands of their employer but also, as alleged by them, torture at the hands of the immigration police. Such behaviour meted out to our workers cannot be countenanced by any self-respecting nation, and neither should we.
It is also seen that sometimes our workers fall foul of the law. That is why it is very important that our migrant workers are fully briefed and made conversant with local laws and customs before they take up their post, of whatever definition that might be.
We are heartened by the news that the government is sending a high-level delegation to the largest employer of Bangladeshi workers, Saudi Arabia, to iron out matters related to our workers there. We suggest that delegations be also sent to all the major employing countries of Bangladeshi manpower to ensure that their job related problems are resolved for good.
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