Dhaka to highlight potential benefits of labour migration in Brussels moot

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AZM Anas
Bangladesh will highlight the potential benefits of temporary labour migration, as policymakers and non-state actors from across the world gather next month in Brussels to shed light on the highly-debated issue.
The Global Forum on Migration and Development, being sponsored by Belgium, will be held between July 9 and July 11 in the Belgian capital, which will assess how migration policy planning can be linked with development process.
"We'll explain how the short-term migration can make a big difference in the countries like Bangladesh," a foreign ministry official said.
"It requires a coherent global migration policy that can facilitate movement of semi-skilled and unskilled labour across borders seeking employments in the developed world," the official noted, referring to the Mode-4 of the World Trade Organisation.
Estimates say a temporary visa scheme by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment) countries will give economic benefits to the poorer nations worth around US$ 220 billion (22,000 crore) a year.
Talking to the FE, a senior foreign ministry official said Bangladesh would be a coordinating partner at the first roundtable exclusively devoted to the temporary labour migration on the second day of the forum.
"This session will aim to produce a set of practical policy guidelines for governments of the countries of origin and destination to engage with the private sector to the mutual advantage of migrants, host communities, employers and developing economies," he added.
Hamidur Rashid, director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will chair the roundtable with Marta Altolaguirre, vice foreign minister of Guatemala, Rene Cristobal, president, Manpower Resources of Asia, and Syed Saiful Haque of Bangladesh becoming the panelists.
Although the number of the country's representatives is yet to be finalised, a source said one each from the foreign office, expatriate welfare and overseas employment ministry and the Geneva mission will attend the forum.
An official of the expatriate ministry noted, the Bangladesh delegation will show evidence of development impact of remittances on poverty reduction.
He said the flow of remittances sent home by the country's blue-collar workers enabled the country to sustain its growth, despite dwindling external aid and foreign direct investments.
According to the World Bank, remittances helped reduce poverty significantly in the country's eastern region, notably Chittagong, Sylhet and Dhaka, while poverty situation did not improve in the Western region.
Beyond remittances, the forum will also dwell on the possible contribution of diasporas to their countries of origin.
The objectives of the global forum, according to a document available on the forum website, are to identify the best practices that seek to ensure mutual migration-development benefits and to produce concrete outcomes in the form of new models of policies and practices.
The forum will also try to lay the foundation for concrete short and medium term actions taken on the outcomes of the Brussels meeting.
The Forum meeting in Brussels will comprise two interrelated parts: a meeting of civil society actors on the first day, organised by the King Baudouin Foundation, and a discussion by government representatives on the second and third day.
Relevant issues such as the human rights of migrants, gender and capacity building will also be addressed.
The global forum will provide a platform for policymakers to share information on good practices and policies regarding migration and development, but it is not a decision-making process.
The roundtable sessions will examine the policies and strategies of developing and developed countries, at origin and destination ends, that help maximise opportunities and minimise the risks of migration for development.
The forum is a follow-up to the high-level dialogue on migration and development, sponsored by the United Nations in September last year.
More than 140 member states discussed the global implications of international migration and the mutually beneficial interaction between migration and development.
The UN-sponsored dialogue made explicit the close relationship of development policies with migration policies, and reaffirmed how good migration governance can contribute to development and how development policies can impact on migration.