12/01/2021
The migration grievance redress mechanism
STAGE-2: RECEIVING AND COMPILING CASES: The BMET online complaint service is softwaregenerated services, which not only keep the record of the complaints, but also update the complainant
on the status of his/her case. The BMET authority, after assessing the case story and documents, updates
the complainant of the date of arbitration through issuing email and letters or sometimes refers cases to
relevant labour wings of Bangladesh missions abroad. The case receiving process of BAIRA is
conventional, where they receive the cases by submission of documents physically and sometimes via
brokers.
STAGE-3: GRIEVANCE REDRESS PROCESS: Process followed by BMET-For the cases of returning
women from abroad who are complaining of suffering from physical or sexual abuse by the employers,
after receiving the complaint the BMET starts communicating with the labour wings of Bangladesh
Missions abroad and the recruiting agencies for safe return of migrant workers within seven working
days. For the compensation cases of returnee migrants, the BMET forms an investigation committee
and arranges arbitration in presence of both parties at a neutral venue of BMET. Redressing the
grievances or complaints through the arbitration process requires 1-2 months.
Process followed by BAIRA: The private association of recruiting agencies named BAIRA also deals
with the migration grievance through its own setup, where it follows a conventional system to resolve
the cases. It requires the physical presence of the complainant and the accused agents at the BAIRA
arbitration cell. The process of BAIRA arbitration is mostly similar to BMET, where it requires 1-2
months or even uncertain time to mediate the grievances which are biased to favour the recruiting
agents in most cases. Therefore, the survivors usually not feel confident to lodge a case with
BAIRA.
Process followed by GMCs: The local general Grievance Management Committees (GMCs) usually
resolve the migration grievances in presence of both parties analyzing their opinions and evidences. In
case of established and specialised GMCs, the committees receive the case using a case-taking form and
analyze the acceptability of the grievance or complaints. In the second step the GMCs talk with both
parties and call all at a hearing session at a neutral place. The hearing sessions may be conducted for
several times, but the GMCs keep all records and documents as support. If the defendant accepts the
blame and commits to make compensation, the GMC closes the file. On the other hand, if the defendant
does not accept the plea or does not express interest to resolve it, the GMCs with the evidence or
support documents refer the cases to village court, BMET, mobile court or even the district magistrate
or judge's court.
STAGE-4: LEGAL STEPS: For protecting the rights of migrant workers and their families as per the
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their
Families 1990, the Bangladesh government enacted Overseas Employment and Migration Act 2013.
Besides, the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act 2012 has been enacted to protect
migrants from trafficking and forced labour. Apart from these principal laws, in Bangladesh, the
survivors also have the provision to take legal steps against deceit recruiters under Village Court Act
2006, Mobile Court Act 2009 (with the help of BMET), Penal Code 420 (fraud cases), Money
Laundering Prevention Act 2012 (against illicit recruiting agencies or labour traffickers involved in
illegal money transfer), Women and Children Violence Protection Law 2000 (for protecting migrant
workers and families from physical and sexual harassment or abuse), and even under the Right To
Information Act 2009 (to claim documents relating to labour migration, business agreement or job
contract).
Case filing at Village Court: Union Parishad (UP) is the lowest tier of local government, where one UP
chairman along with 13 members (one Chairman, 3 women members and 9 UP members) implements
UP activities. The Ups are the main actor to operate the Village Courts (as per village court act 2006),
which is a formal litigation process of government to ensure access to justice at the grassroots level.
Usually, the Chairman of the UP acts as Chairman of the Village Court and forms the village court
nominating four members from complainants and defendants after receiving the complaint. The village
court could resolve grievances that are subject to resolution within the compensation of Tk 75,000 or
less. It could also refer cases to first class magistrate court or Assistant Judge Court. For taking cases,
the Village Court has its own application form. Since this takes time to resolve the grievances, the UP
Chairman prefers to resolve the grievances through mediation.
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