Basher, Noman nominated as BAIRA president, secy-gen

Under the prudent leadership of former president Mohd Noor Ali, Sammilita Oikya Parishad has nominated Mohammed Abul Basher and Shammeem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman as the president and secretary general, respectively, of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA).

The Parishad made the announcement at a press conference at a hotel in Dhaka on Sunday, a day after the election for a new executive committee. The Parishad secured 23 out of 27 posts on the committee.

Rules dictate that the list of office bearers by the winning panel must be submitted to the election commission on the following day of the voting.

The commission will confirm the list and their appointment soon.

The Parishad also proposed Reaz-Ul-Islam as senior vice-president and Noman Chowdhury, Mohammed Abu Zafar and Mohammed Abul Barakat Bhuiyan as the first, second and third vice-presidents, respectively. Mohammed Fakhrul Islam, Akbar Hussain Monju and Md Tipu sultan were nominated as the first, second and third joint secretaries general, respectively.

Mizanur Rahman was nominated as finance secretary, Rehana Perween as cultural secretary, Md Farid Ahamed as public relation secretary, and Mohammad Ashraf Uddin as member welfare secretary.

Of the other elected people, Shahadat Hossain, Ali Haider Chowdhury, Musa Kalim, Mostafa Mahmud, Arifur Rahman, Md Belal Hossain Mazumder, Mohammad Oli Ullah, Rafiqul Islam Patwari, Hoque Zahirul Joe and Md Kamal Uddin Dilu also got recommended by the panel for executive committee member posts.

“The election has created the beginning of a new era. The new committee will work to ensure equal opportunities for all recruiting agencies with valid licences,” said Noor Ali, the chief coordinator of the Sammilita Oikya Parishad.

He also shared his plan to open up the Malaysian labour market to other recruiting agencies outside the 25 agencies that have created a syndicate intending to monopolise the manpower market there.

Four elected candidates of Sammilita Ganatantrik Jote representing the syndicate — Md Ruhul Amin Shawpon, Kazi Mohammad Mofizur Rahman, Md Abul Bashar and MA Sobhan Bhuiyan — were also proposed to be executive committee members.

“Malaysia needs a huge amount of manpower and a limited number of agencies will fail to meet that demand. If that happens, we will lose the fresh opportunity and Malaysia will recruit workers from other countries.

“To prevent that, we need to engage more agencies and fully use the opportunity,” he said, adding they have plans to further explore and improve standards of the manpower market in Saudi Arabia.

President nominee Abul Basher said, “The new committee will work to reduce migration cost and the excessive profit some bad agencies make by cheating the migrant aspirants.”

“We tried earlier when we were in the past committee but were unsuccessful. After six years, BAIRA members have voted to elect a new committee. We will bring middlemen under a legal framework.

“We will propose the government introduce regulations for middlemen to give them valid identity cards so that they can be monitored and punished if they are involved in fraud,” he said.