¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·

Migration aspirants and migrant workers remain vulnerable as ever in the past as the recruiting agencies have kept on charging arbitrary and extortionate fees even after the government changeover.

The interim government formed on August 8 after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime amid a student-led mass uprising on August 5 has still failed to compel the recruiters to keep migration charges within a reasonable limit despite repeated calls from different quarters concerned.  

Insiders in the sector said that the uncontrolled migration costs were creating multiple risks for migrants—pushing migrants to economic and physical vulnerabilities and destroying the country’s fame aboard.

They blamed the syndicated market of manpower recruiting agents remained active, as it was in the past, even after the student-led mass uprising. The interim government, formed after the fall of Sheikh Hasina, made commitments to bring reforms in various sectors.

Several syndicates are still active at different stages of migration including visa trading, medical tests, visa approval and airfare for migrant workers to different countries, they added.

They said that many unskilled workers and many who intended to work in destination countries were migrating illegally to cover excessive migration costs, while many others travelled from the destination country to another country for the same reason. Many potential markets were closed for Bangladeshis for these reasons.

Md Sohel Rana, an aspirant migrant from Sirajganj, said that he had been trying to migrate to Singapore as a factory worker for the past two years but failed due to higher migration costs.

‘I have deposited Tk 5 lakh, out of a total amount of Tk 7 lakh, on September 10. I will have to pay the rest of the amount before my expected departure in mid-October,’ he said.

He added that he didn’t find any change in the migration sector before and after the fall of the Awami League government.

The same six syndicates have been controlling the market at their whim.

Migration rights activists said that the syndicates were still active in the sector and there was no change regarding excessive migration costs even after the political changeover in the country.

‘I don’t see any change in the migration sector even today,’ Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program chairman Shakirul Islam said.

Expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment affairs adviser Asif Nazrul said that they were working to bring  all agents and sub-agents under accountability.

He told reporters on Tuesday at his ministry office that the government would not allow any syndicate and control the migration cost.

Shakirul said that high migration costs had been leading to forced labour and causing money laundering.

He described high migration costs as one of the main barriers to ethical and safe migration,’ he said.

He suggested introducing ‘migration at the cost of employer’ or ‘zero migration cost policy’ and the government’s strong monitoring to end the existing system.

The expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry has set migration costs only for 17 destination countries. Bangladeshis, however, are now migrating to over 150 countries.

Activists said that the recruiting agencies never followed the migration costs set for the 17 destination countries.

The government set the highest Tk 262,270 for migrating to Singapore including the cost for training, Tk 78,990 for Malaysia, Tk 1,65,000 for KSA, Tk 97,780 for Bahrain, Tk 107,780 for the UAE, Tk 106,780 for Kuwait, Tk 100,780 for both Oman and Qatar, Tk 129,540 for Iraq, Tk 120,080 for Egypt, Tk 166,640 for Russia, Tk 115,780 for Maldives, Tk 120,780 for Brunei, Tk 117,780 for Lebanon, Tk 102,780 for Jordan and Tk 148,500 for Japan.

The report of Socio-Economic and Demographic Survey 2023 by the BBS said that less than 10 per cent people could migrate within the fixed migration cost.

BBS said that 74 per cent of the KSA migrants expend more than Tk 3 lakh, and 85 per cent of the Singapore migrants expend more than Tk 3 lakh as migration cost.

To meet the huge migration cost, 58 per cent of the migrants borrow money from different sources.

Officials said that Bangladesh had sent workers to 180 countries and, of them, at least 10 countries were considered common destinations for Bangladeshis. The countries include KSA, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, Singapore, UK and South Korea.

Migrants alleged that they used to collect the high migration cost by taking loans from relatives and local lenders and selling lands, domestic animals and crops.

Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies former secretary general Ali Haider Chowdhury admitted the issue of high migration cost and said that the rates set by the government were hardly followed.

He said that the migration costs set by the government were unrealistic and other costs related to migration remained uncontrolled.

He explained that migration costs depended on different issues including airfare, passport cost and medical costs.  ‘All these costs are high and uncontrolled. All these keep the impact on total migration costs.’

‘Our migration system is lengthy and complex. It takes three to four months to complete the process. As a result, the cost becomes higher,’ he said.

He urged the government to control airfare, dollar prices and to set a realistic migration cost.

BAIRA joint secretary Tipu Sultan said that syndicates of different stakeholders remained active in the migration process. ‘But, only the recruiting agents are blamed.’

‘Airfare from Bangladesh is the highest without any valid reason. It also increases the migration cost,’ he said.

Presently, syndicates of manpower agents were active in Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia, Singapore, and Romania, the sector insiders said.

They said that middlemen in the migration system also played an important role in hiking the migration cost.

The BRAC Migration Programme and BRAC Youth Platform chief Shariful Hasan said that migration costs in Bangladesh might be the highest in the world. ‘The recruiters and government agencies are equality responsible for it.’

He said that the government had set migration costs for several countries but they never cared about their implementation.

‘If the government honestly wants to control the cost, it is possible,’ he said.

Officials said that different countries including Mauritius and Romania suspended hiring workers from Bangladesh repeatedly as expatriates employed there travelled to different companies in different countries to recover migration costs.

In March 2021, Moshiur Rahman among and a number of youths migrated to a European country, Romania, by spending Tk 12 lakhs as the government did not set any migration cost for the country.

He said that he was doing a job in a packaging factory at a monthly wage of Tk 30,000. The amount was too small to recover his migration cost in years together after paying his daily necessities there.

‘I left Romania for Italy for a better earning in September,’ he said.

Officials at the monitoring and enforcement wing of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment said that they did not take any punitive actions against any recruiting agencies in the past one year.