Discussants at a seminar Sunday identified illegal visa trading, influence of local and foreign brokers and vague job and wage agreements as key barriers to ensuring low-cost and safe migration of outbound Bangladeshi workers.
Keeping this in view, they called for proper implementation of the existing laws, developing workers' skills and language capability to help enhance their bargaining capacities and wages abroad.
The observations were made at the seminar on 'Citizens' responsibility to ensure low-cost and safe migration', organised by the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment (MoEWOE) at the CIRDAP auditorium.
MoEWOE secretary Dr Nomita Halder, Secretary General of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) Md Ruhul Amin (Shawpon), chairman of WARBE Development Foundation Syed Saiful Haque, proprietor of SA Trading Abdul Alim, and Managing Director (MD) of Bay Eastern Ltd Farah Anjum Bari, among others, attended the seminar.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Nomita Halder said visa trading is the root cause of higher migration cost from Bangladesh, which often doesn't bring success to a worker.
"Visa traders are not only active in the receiving countries, but also in Bangladesh," she said.
She said those who trade in Bangladesh also have offices and networks in other countries like Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.
"They (visa traders) collect demand letters from employer companies at higher cost, which they offer to a willing migrant at additional cost," said the official who recently visited Saudi Arabia.
Referring to the meeting with the officials there, she said: "We hope the Saudi Arabian government would take punitive actions against visa traders there."
Underscoring the need for sending workers to foreign countries for more dignified trade, she said the government has taken many initiatives to enhance the workers' capacity.
She added: "Many recruiting agencies are reluctant to hire skilled workers."
In his speech, Mr Alim identified prevalence of brokers, syndicate and poor negotiation capacity as some of the reasons behind higher migration cost.
"Lax monitoring of the government, absence of appropriate laws and vested interest of influential people in both sending and receiving countries, have given birth to syndication regime in manpower export market of Bangladesh," he said.
Director General (DG) of Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) Md Salim Reza said the government has achieved a revolutionary success in sending workers abroad.
"However, there are still much more to do for the sector's development," he said.
He stressed the need for outbound workers' skill development to enrol them for more dignified trade like hospitality services.
Citing the example of Bangladeshi workers' success in Korea, he said any would-be migrant must learn a language for at least two-three months.
saif.febd@gmail.com