‘High migration cost is killing migrants’
High migration cost is killing migrants, Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment State Minister Imran Ahmed said today.
“Let’s work together in a way that the migrant workers are not hurt,” the state minister said at a regional consultation on Global Compact on Migration (GCM) organised by IOM and ILO at the Hotel Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.
He said the government is considering to insurance and cash incentives to the migrants for their well-being.
Imran Ahmed said Bangladeshi migrants send home 15 billion dollars but this could have been in the range of 20 to 25 billion dollars annually if all the remittance would be channeled via formal channels.
The GCM was adopted by the UN last year for a better governed migration. High migration coupled with presence of middlemen has been a major issue for the country, he said.
Last year, Malaysia suspended labour recruitment from Bangladesh on allegations of high cost of migration through syndicate. The recruitment cost was as high as Tk 4 lakh.
At the inaugural of the event, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam said Bangladesh is committed to the protection of migrants because it is not integral part of development.
“We are advocating for ethical migration, lower cost of remittance, voluntary repatriation and reintegration,” he said. Protecting migrants is not the responsibility of any government or any one country but a global responsibility, Alam added.
Bangladesh has already drafted a strategy of migration governance, which also proves its commitment to the issue, he added.
