Fifty one per cent of migrant workers have experience fraudulence or degrading treatment at different stages of their migration, according to a study revealed on Wednesday.
Among them, 19 per cent have failed to go abroad after paying a section or full amount and 32 per cent have experienced fraudulence in the destination countries, said the study conducted by Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit.
RMMRU under the PROKAS project of British Council is pursuing the research on the role of dalals in migration process. The findings are from a near census that was conducted for identifying the extent of fraudulence in Tangail district.
The field work was held in nine villages of Paikora union and 11 wards of Elenga municipality in Tangail, said RMMRU founding chair Tasneem Siddiqui while presenting findings of the study at a consultation on fraudulence in migration process at Nawab Ali Senate Bhaban, in Dhaka University.
Some 300 households from each village/ward constituted the enumeration area and altogether 5407 households were covered under the census, she said.
Leaders of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies, deceived migrant workers, representatives from government and non-government organizations took part discussion in the consultation.
Speaking as chief guest, retired judge of Appellate Division of Supreme Court Justice Mohammad Nizamul Huq Nassim said that there were still some problems in the migration sector and the steps must be taken to find way-out and reduce the problems.
‘One group of people who are cheating the migrants must be brought under purview of law,’ he said, adding that the recruiting agencies as well as the government should have to play their responsible role in ensuring the security and rights of the workers who were going abroad.
BAIRA president Benjir Ahmed said that they were working with government to ensure safe migration for all outgoing workers.
He stressed introducing online system in recruitment to remove middlemen from the process.
Few male and female migrants who faced fraudulences by the middlemen have shared their experiences at the consultation.
Dhaka university professor of International Relations CR Abrar, BAIRA joint secretary general Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, deputy chief of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment ministry, Ali Reza among other spoke at the consultation.
Source: New Age
