Dhaka for ensuring minimum wages for migrant workers
Monday, 11 June 2007
Bangladesh mooted a proposal for a global collective effort to set minimum wages for migrant workers for different levels of skill and experience, as labour movements alongside free flow of foreign currency became important part of the new world order.
"No one country can implement the minimum wage policy alone. The global community must come forward to make it a reality," Foreign Affairs Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said Sunday, making the call for a global initiative to deal with this matter from a sense of urgency.
The adviser made the remark at 'Policy Dialogue on Safe Migration and Remittances', organised by the Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit (RMMRU) and the Daily Star in the city, at a time when the international labour market mostly remained out of form, reports UNB.
He said temporary labour migration would become safe and it would be possible to maximise its developmental impact if a minimum living wage for the migrant workers could be ensured.
Chowdhury, who is also in charge of the Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment and the CHT Affairs ministries, suggested that the migrant workers should receive health and life insurance from their employers.
He apprised the function that Bangladesh foreign missions had already been instructed to look after and protect the interests of expatriate Bangladeshi workers as a priority, as remittances from them began to be an important contributor to the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
The adviser said during the first four months of this year, a total of 191,806 unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers were sent abroad-marking a 99 per cent increase over the same one-third period of the past year.
Last year, 96,411 workers went abroad during the corresponding period.
Chowdhury said the remittances received during the period hit a record figure of US$1.6 billion.
He said official remittance inflows into Bangladesh reached $4.8 billion in fiscal year 2005-06, representing approximately 7.60 per cent of the GDP.
Last year, remittance transfers were approximately four times higher than net aid flows into Bangladesh and more than nine times larger than foreign direct investment (FDI).
As of June this year, he mentioned, 4.55 million Bangladeshis are working as migrant workers abroad. This figure is in addition to the large Bangladeshi diaspora in the United Kingdom and North America.
The adviser said over 90 per cent of Bangladeshi temporary labour migrants live in eight countries of the Middle East and North Africa. Saudi Arabia alone accounts for 49.80 per cent of all the Bangladeshi labour forces working abroad.
"We are constantly on the lookout for new opportunities," he told the meet and mentioned the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with the UAE and South Korea ensuring the rights and interests of legitimate workers in those countries.
He said Bangladesh is one of the first few countries to sign the 'International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families' in 1998.
About the ratification of the Convention, the caretaker government adviser said the ratification issue needs to be examined afresh.
However, the adviser assured that the government would definitely examine the issue of ratification of the 1998 International Convention on migrant workers with an open mind.
"No one country can implement the minimum wage policy alone. The global community must come forward to make it a reality," Foreign Affairs Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said Sunday, making the call for a global initiative to deal with this matter from a sense of urgency.
The adviser made the remark at 'Policy Dialogue on Safe Migration and Remittances', organised by the Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit (RMMRU) and the Daily Star in the city, at a time when the international labour market mostly remained out of form, reports UNB.
He said temporary labour migration would become safe and it would be possible to maximise its developmental impact if a minimum living wage for the migrant workers could be ensured.
Chowdhury, who is also in charge of the Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment and the CHT Affairs ministries, suggested that the migrant workers should receive health and life insurance from their employers.
He apprised the function that Bangladesh foreign missions had already been instructed to look after and protect the interests of expatriate Bangladeshi workers as a priority, as remittances from them began to be an important contributor to the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
The adviser said during the first four months of this year, a total of 191,806 unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers were sent abroad-marking a 99 per cent increase over the same one-third period of the past year.
Last year, 96,411 workers went abroad during the corresponding period.
Chowdhury said the remittances received during the period hit a record figure of US$1.6 billion.
He said official remittance inflows into Bangladesh reached $4.8 billion in fiscal year 2005-06, representing approximately 7.60 per cent of the GDP.
Last year, remittance transfers were approximately four times higher than net aid flows into Bangladesh and more than nine times larger than foreign direct investment (FDI).
As of June this year, he mentioned, 4.55 million Bangladeshis are working as migrant workers abroad. This figure is in addition to the large Bangladeshi diaspora in the United Kingdom and North America.
The adviser said over 90 per cent of Bangladeshi temporary labour migrants live in eight countries of the Middle East and North Africa. Saudi Arabia alone accounts for 49.80 per cent of all the Bangladeshi labour forces working abroad.
"We are constantly on the lookout for new opportunities," he told the meet and mentioned the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with the UAE and South Korea ensuring the rights and interests of legitimate workers in those countries.
He said Bangladesh is one of the first few countries to sign the 'International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families' in 1998.
About the ratification of the Convention, the caretaker government adviser said the ratification issue needs to be examined afresh.
However, the adviser assured that the government would definitely examine the issue of ratification of the 1998 International Convention on migrant workers with an open mind.