In Saudi Arabia, Naima worked for three months, and the employer did not even pay her a single month’s
salary.
As she had migrated through the regular channel with the knowledge of the Bangladesh government, upon
her return, she complained through the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) in Bangladesh
for compensation in 2019.
“After three hearings, the BMET official settled my complaint with the agency. Unfortunately, the award was
less than half of the amount that Naima had claimed,” she said.
According to Naima, at her first hearing, the agency’s representative questioned her ‘character,’ and blamed
her saying, “it was her fault that she couldn’t work.”
“The agent even threatened me in front of the BMET official. During the second hearing, the agency’s
representative threatened me again and said that I must go with him to the agency’s office to settle the
complaint,” she said.
And at the final hearing, Naima was forced to settle her complaint with a tiny amount of compensation.
“If I had been aware of this unjust reality, I would never have filed a complaint,” she added.
Sub-Agents and Unethical Recruitment
Naima’s case is not an isolated one. Despite having authorised recruitment agencies, many unregulated dalals
(agents and sub-agents) have made the recruitment practice of migrant workers unethical and unfair in
Bangladesh.
The unauthorised sub-agents, in close collaboration with the licensed recruiting agents, supply potential
migrant workers from rural areas. Therefore, Bangladeshi migrant workers are often deceived in the
recruitment process.
According to a research report released last month by OKUP, a grassroots migrant organisation, in Bangladesh,
reveals that out of the 262 returnee women cases they compiled, nearly 95 percent of the migrant workers
were recruited by unauthorised sub-agents or sub-sub-agents.
The research report also says that seven per cent of the 262 women surveyed were under the age of 25, the
legal age required to migrate, while three per cent were children below the age of 18.
“24 per cent of the women were provided with an ‘emigration clearance card’ without their participation in
the mandatory pre-departure training organised by the government-run technical training centres. 17 per cent
were sent with forged certificates of medical fitness,” the report adds.
The report also reveals that nearly 88 per cent of the women were not provided with a written job contract in
time, or with appropriate translation and orientation.