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Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has asked the law enforcement agencies not to harass the legal recruiting agencies under the human trafficking law. He made the instruction at an inter-ministerial meeting on manpower export held at the home ministry on Thursday.
“If any complaints are lodged with police stations, those should be referred to the Bureau of Manpower, Empowerment, and Training and the bureau will solve the issue after investigation within a week,” sources present at the meeting quoted the minister to have said.
Asaduzzman said if the BMET fails to investigate and resolve the complaints, then local police stations can record a case under human trafficking law or immigration law.
Foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen, Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmed and officers of the three ministries were present at the meeting with Asaduzzaman in the chair.
A five-member delegation from the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), officials of the BMET, and senior officers of law enforcement agencies were also present.
Former president of BAIRA Mohammad Noor Ali, also Managing Director of Unique Group, told The Business Post that the meeting was successful. “Three ministers gave a patient hearing to our demands and the foreign minister came up with a positive decision. We thank him for the decision as it met the longstanding demand of the recruiting agencies,” he said.
“Today’s meeting decided that any complaint against any recruiting agency with any police station should be referred to the BMET and the bureau will submit a report after probing in seven days. If the petitioner goes abroad abiding by all the government rules, it would be tried under migration law. And, if the complainant goes aboard illegally, it would be tried under human trafficking law,” said Noor Ali.
The recruiting agencies said Overseas Employment and Migrant Act 2013 was enacted to facilitate manpower export but the law enforcers used to harass recruiting agencies by suing them under human trafficking law without any investigation whenever any complaint was lodged.
The agency owners had taken to the streets demanding implementation of the Overseas Employment and Migrant Act 2013, formed human chains, submitted a memorandum
to the home minister, and finally submitted a memorandum to the prime minister.
