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Saturday 11 July 2020 ,
Today's Paper (./printversion)
BANGLADESH
22 June, 2020 09:15:18 PM / LAST MODIFIED: 22 June, 2020 10:14:06 PM
(./home/printnews/248762)
Export skilled manpower to reduce vulnerabilities: Experts
Independent Online/UNB
File photo
Speakers at a webinar in the capital on Monday stressed the importance of exporting skilled manpower, aiming to reduce their vulnerabilities in their host countries as many
have been arbitrarily repatriated amid the Covid-19 pandemic recently.
“If we can ensure skilled migrants, they will not face vulnerabilities in their recipient countries. So, people should not go abroad (for oversees jobs) without having any skill,” said
Expatriates Welfare and Oversees Employment Secretary Dr Ahmed Munirus Saleheen.
The Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit (RMMRU) arranged the webinar titled “The other face of globalisation” to highlight the experiences and hardship of the
migrant workers who returned home in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic in line with the findings of a study conducted on 50 returnees.
Dr Saleheen said the government now focuses on grooming skilled manpower for oversees jobs.
In this regard, he mentioned the slogan “Mujib Borsher Ahban, Dokkha Hoye Bides Jan ” (Go abroad becoming skilled, it is call of the Mujib Year).
He said the Expatriates Welfare and Oversees Employment Ministry will soon prepare a database of the returnees with support from the a2i programme and International
Organization for Migration (IOM). “We’ll soon start preparing the database of returnees,” he added.
The Secretary, however, said the number of migrant workers who returned home amid the coronavirus crisis is not statistically very significant.
About the loss of remittance caused by forcibly return of expatriates, he said many workers go abroad, particularly the Middle East countries, with free visa and work in informal
sectors there. “In many cases, the workers have no proper documents or papers. So , it is tough to collect compensation,” he added.
Placing the findings of the interview based study, RMMRU founding chair Dr Tasneem Siddiqui said 78 percent returnees were arbitrarily sent back to Bangladesh, while 10
percent returned home voluntarily and six percent on leave.
Dr Tasneem said three-quarters of the returnees claimed that they were picked up from public places like roads and stores, detained and forcibly sent back, while one-tenth
returned voluntarily (mostly from Malaysia) and the rest came on leave or employers sponsored return for security (mostly from Malaysia).