Lack of policy to blame for expats’ plight

ANIS ALAMGIR

Hundreds of Bangladeshi labourers get stranded abroad every year for various reasons, but there is no clear government policy to bring them back home. As a result, not only the expatriates and their family members are suffering, but the country's image has been tarnished in the international arena.
Right now the ministry of expatriate welfare and overseas employment is dealing with the issue on a case by case basis, not by specific policy. But the ministry has a policy to bring back the dead body of an expatriate labourer. The ministry pays TK two Lakh to the family members of a labourer who die through a workplace accident.
"Question like gone abroad as legal or illegal workers, individually or collectively, should come later. First we have to arrange their ticket to come home, then we can judge who is at fault and whom we should punish. The manpower ministry is empowered to punish the faulty recruiting agents," said a top official of the foreign ministry, adding: "We are tired of dealing with the stranded Bangladeshi problem with the expatriate welfare ministry. They have huge money for the welfare of expatriates but adopt a lengthy process to disburse it for stranded nationals."
"Did we raise the question when they sent money to the country," the officer questioned adding: "Why we are not ensuring safety, security and salary of our labourers before sending them abroad?"
He added: "Unfortunately our expatriate welfare ministry's attitude is also like that of host governments, who should provide air ticket for bringing our nationals back."
Citing the recent example of two stranded Bangladeshis, one in Benin and another in Liberia, the foreign ministry official said that over the last few months they were trying to bring them back but it was not completed. He said: "We only felt obliged to bring back stranded Bangladeshis if the issue is published in newspapers."
Twenty-eight Bangladeshi sailors were stranded in the West African country Benin for over six months. Seven of them returned home on May 17. The foreign ministry hopes that the rest will come back soon. Around 60 seamen went to Benin to work on ships in December last year but they remained unpaid since then.
In Liberia's case, eight manpower recruiting agencies arranged visas for 99 Bangladeshis to go there. But 38 of them were unable to reach Liberia while 21 were able to return and the remaining 40 were stranded there.
Talking to The Independent, secretary, ministry of expatriates' welfare and overseas employment Dr. Zafar Ahmed said: "I also feel that we should have a policy regarding stranded Bangladeshis because we are facing a lot of problems over this issue".
"Sometimes we arrange money for them from our wage-earners' development fund. During the recent incident in Liberia, we gave Tk 16 lakh for air tickets for 20 Bangladeshis.
This is the fund for expatriate labourers - those who went abroad through the bureau of manpower expatriates and training (BMET) but we are spending the fund on others also on humanitarian grounds."
Dr. Zafar Ahmed admitted that his ministry adopted a lengthy process to bring back the stranded Bangladeshis due to bureaucratic reasons.
In replying to a question, the secretary suggested that the government could allocate a fund in the budget to spend for such proposes. The government could adopt a policy in this regard if there was a fund.
Dr. Zafar Ahmed disclosed that his ministry had taken initiatives to launch a new bank for the welfare of expatriates. The government needs no extra money to open the bank as TK 300 crore lies in the wage-earners' development fund.