Cheated migrant workers deprived of due official support: Watchdogs

Migrant workers cheated by dishonest manpower recruiters are allegedly not getting proper cooperation from the authorities in getting compensation and other supports.
Rights groups and workers left in the lurch said maximum of victim migrants are deprived of necessary supports from the relevant department after lodging complaints against such misdealing recruiting agencies.
However, officials claimed all the applicants are being provided compensation and other benefits according to their complaints.
Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) data showed some 173 complaints submitted against fraudulent recruiters in 2014 and 137 of the cases settled. The rest were under process.
During the last year, victims received Tk 12.6 million as compensation and six recruiting agencies' licences were cancelled following allegations of deceptive activities.
Besides, a total of 2,185 complaints were lodged over the last five years and all the cases were settled, said BMET officials.
Migrant workers can lodge complaints with the bureau manually as well as online.
With the technical supports of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), BMET set up online complaints system in 2009.
Since then, only 546 complaints have been made online by cheated migrants. Of those, 311have been settled, 226 completed hearings, eight are under investigation and five remained pending.
Twenty-three complaints were submitted online in 2014, and "any of those is yet to be settled", said an RMMRU report.
It shows that only one complaint was lodged from among female workers in the last one year.
As per the report, maximum of complaints were from the UAE while workers from Oman, Jordan, Iraq, Qatar and Sudan also complained in 2014.
Some 22 Bangladeshi workers who returned from Iraq lodged complaints in early 2014 against four recruiting agencies: Morning Sun Enterprise, East Bengal Overseas, Idea International, and Meghna Trade International. They are yet to get any compensation from the recruiting agencies, said Al Amin Nayan, a rights activist close to the Iraq-returnee migrants.
Although the authority cancelled the recruiting agencies' licences, victims did not get compensation as yet, he added
He also said during 2012 and 2011, some 35 workers submitted applications against recruiting agencies. Now they lost their hopes as they are yet to get any response from the authority.
But a BMET official claimed they do not keep pending any complaint for long time. "All the cases are solved within two or three months," he said, wishing anonymity.
As majority of workers are not internet-friendly, so they are mostly dependent on manual system in submitting complaints, he added.
Tasnim Siddiqi, founding chair of RMMRU, said the number is very poor against incidents of fraudulence with migrant workers.
Following the absence of publicity, she noted, victims are yet to be familiar with complaint- lodging system.  
"If the government takes campaign programme, workers will be able to use the facilities of online system," she said.
She also said maximum cases of arbitration are being settled for only Tk 20,000 to 30,000 as compensation against more than Tk 200,000 or Tk 300,000 spent as migration cost.
"So it is not a good support."
Ms Siddiqi also emphasised setting up shelter home in every mission office so that women can get proper services, including in lodging complaints, as and when they need.
Shikkha Shastha Unnayan Karzakram (SHISHUK) Executive Director Sakiul Millat Morshed said victims did not get the entire amount of migration costs.
"Women are far more deprived."
The recruiters do not want to give more than Tk 20,000 each as the government has fixed the amount for the women as a migration cost, he said.
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