Migrants’ reintegration a challenge: Abrar

Bangladesh should come up with steps to resend returnee migrants, who are aspiring to go, or reintegrate them with local economic activities by ensuring jobs or making them self-employed for better utilisation of their skills, says Chowdhury Rafiqul Abrar, executive director of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU). Abrar, also a professor of international relations at Dhaka University, shares his thoughts on the present status of migrant workers and their well-being with The Business Post’s Mehedi Al Amin. 

The Business Post: What are the major issues in overseas migration?

CR Abrar: Reintegration of returnee migrants is a major challenge. Along with initiatives to reintegrate them, efforts should be directed to facilitate migration of those who want to go abroad. While we are looking for more employment in the existing markets, there is an urgent need to find fresh labour markets and we should focus more on skill up our workforce. While we explore new labour markets, we should also focus on providing our migrant workers with better protection mechanism, particularly among women.

TBP: What does the government need to do for reintegration of returnee migrant?

CR Abrar: Reintegration efforts should not be limited to providing the returnees with loans only. It should also involve linking returnee migrants with local job market, creating opportunities for those who have returned with their savings to either invest it in any business or financial instruments. They should be facilitated with access to loans, financial literacy, and market scope for the new entrepreneurs. Those who have come in a distressed condition should also be provided with financial and other forms of support, including psychological.

TBP: Labour migration to Middle Eastern countries is declining gradually, even from the pre-covid-19 pandemic period. What is the way forward?

CR Abrar: It is true economic activities have slowed down in many countries across the world including the Gulf countries that led to the low demand for workers. When economic activities will resume and price of oil will increase, there will be fresh demand for workers. It may not be at the scale that used to be in the past, but certainly the demand will rise. The demand for female labourers in post-pandemic period is projected to increase substantially. So, we need to cater this demand and train our workers with new skills such as in health services, caregiving, and information and communication technology.

TBP: Though the pandemic increased the demand for health professionals abroad, our health professionals are not getting jobs as much as expected. What are the reasons behind this?

CR Abrar: This is true that there was not much emphasis on this issue in the past. The private sector is mostly engaged in recruitment of low skilled workers. Now, we have to design our labour sending strategy focusing on skilled workers to meet the new market demand. There will be a huge demand for health workers and technicians at various tiers and we have to prepare our workforce and training institutions to tap that market. Overall, we need to have a robust skill training system in place to produce skilled workers, not only for the local labour market but also the international market.

TBP: Government and recruiting agencies blame each other over their failure in exploring new markets and send more workers. So, what should the government and the recruiting agencies do in this regard?

CR Abrar: We must understand that recruiting agencies were not that much successful in the past in bringing contracts for overseas employment. It is the individuals residing abroad who are procuring visas and most of the recruiting agencies are only processing those visas from the Bangladesh end. Bangladeshi recruiting agencies have minimal contacts with foreign employers which lead to the flourishing of intermediaries at both ends, increasing the cost of migration. The number of ethical recruiting agencies is very low. Time has come to lay emphasis on ethical recruitment.

TBP: Trafficking of women using social media platforms, like Tik-tok, is now the talk of the country. How do you see it and how we can get rid of such menace?

CR Abrar: This is the dark-side of a digitalised globalised world. In most cases, unscrupulous quarters cash in on aspirations of young women to work abroad. The absence of proper information and job linkage opportunities pave the way for traffickers to trap innocent women in conditions of servitude. What we need is a huge information campaign. The Covid-19 situation has further restricted opportunities to move through formal channels and this has stimulated irregular flows. There should be an organised crackdown on the facilitators of trafficking and human smuggling.

TBP: Why trafficking is happening despite existence of international forums to stop it collectively?

CR Abrar: No single country can stop trafficking and there has to be regional and international cooperation in this regard. Despite existence of regional and international instruments and protocols, trafficking and other forms of irregular migration are on the rise. Although Bangladesh has a very good anti-trafficking law, this law is yet to yield meaningful results. Lawyers, judges, members of law enforcement agencies and the civil society are not much aware of the contents of the law. Moreover, the issues of witness protection and other related issues need to be ensured. Instances are there that the traffickers are connected with powerful locals and unscrupulous members of the law enforcement agencies. All these issues undermine any effort to make them accountable. There has to be collaboration among the law enforcement agencies at source, transit and destination countries. At the same time, an awareness campaign at the national level is also very important.

TBP: How do you evaluate the impact of sending female workers abroad to our national economy?

CR Abrar: Although female migrants earn less than their male counterparts, their savings rate is relatively higher and they also remit regularly. Unfortunately, the state so far has not been able to ensure their necessary protection in destination countries. In many cases, female migrants are subjected to sexual, physical and verbal abuse. As the government is committed to ensure protection of female migrants, the embassies need to be resourced and more shelter homes should be established. There has to be some monitoring from embassies on female migrants engaged both in the formal and informal sectors. The government should take foolproof measures to safeguard female workers after their working hours as they are relatively vulnerable in the destination countries.

TBP: The government fears of losing markets in Middle Eastern countries if it negotiates or bargains over the safety of women workers. What is the reality?

CR Abrar: What we need is to collaborate with other labour sending countries. The Colombo Process and Abu Dhabi Dialogue platforms should be used to raise collective voice of labour sending countries. States have a responsibility for their own nationals and therefore minimum protection has to be ensured. Philippines and other countries have refused to send workers to the Gulf states for such mistreatment. Such a strict stand eventually led to changes in policies in of destination countries. So, on occasions, we have to assert ourselves vis-a-vis the receiving countries.

TBP: Will current growth of remittance continue?

CR Abrar: It is difficult to say how long this trend would continue. Because of the Covid-19 crisis, migrants are sending higher amount of remittances to their loved ones to help them cope with difficult times. Secondly, due to Covid-19 situation, normal economic activities have halted and for lack of demand, money is coming through formal channels instead of illegal hundi process. As soon as flights, economic and business activities resume, money transfer through hundi will rise again and it will lead to reduction of remittance flow. There are quite a few other factors operating. And therefore, we cannot expect the growth trend will continue. We have to be cautious in having that optimism.

TBP: Returnee migrants are bearing the cost of quarantine facilities in hotels on their own. Is it ethical?

CR Abrar: Government has to pay for such facilities as it is part of national health security. Quarantine costs upon the return of migrant workers should not be passed on to them.

TBP: Is the vaccination efforts taken by the government for the migrants satisfactory?

CR Abrar: Quite a lot of time was spent in working out the modalities of vaccinating migrant workers. However, meaningful progress has been made. There is still scope to reduce the formalities and time frame to vaccinate the migrant workers. The government should also negotiate with the governments of workers’ destination countries so that the workers there can also be vaccinated. This should be high on the agenda of the government.