Government needs to stand by our workers abroad
Monday, 2 June 2008
Bad news is reaching us from abroad about our workers there. When the papers were writing about harassment of Bangladeshis in Saudi Arabia, the real blow came from Bahrain, which imposed a ban on any further recruitment of workers from Bangladesh. A move is reportedly there to place a bill in parliament to expel all the 90,000 Bangladeshis now working there. The reason: a Bangladeshi there killed a national of Bahrain. The Bangladesh authorities rightly pointed out that for the crime of one person an entire community cannot be held responsible.
Kazi Mofizur Rahman, the secretary general of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), described the problem as "a diplomatic failure of the country". "We don't want to be so harsh, but we urge Dhaka to take up the issue seriously with Manama. If a Bangladeshi has violated the law in Bahrain, he should be dealt with under the law.
But for the Bahraini authorities to suppose that one man's crime can be a cause to punish an entire nation by stopping its workers from going there to work is an act that lacks reason. Bahrain should be told that its move is a direct attack on the human rights," he told reporters.
The foreign office and the manpower ministry must now work out a strategy to assist Bangladeshi workers in distress abroad. Generally our workers abroad work very hard and they have earned a good name for themselves and the country. They have contributed positively to the economic development of the host countries as well as their own. They just can't be abandoned when they face difficulties.
Ahmed Reza
Dhanmandi,
Dhaka
Kazi Mofizur Rahman, the secretary general of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), described the problem as "a diplomatic failure of the country". "We don't want to be so harsh, but we urge Dhaka to take up the issue seriously with Manama. If a Bangladeshi has violated the law in Bahrain, he should be dealt with under the law.
But for the Bahraini authorities to suppose that one man's crime can be a cause to punish an entire nation by stopping its workers from going there to work is an act that lacks reason. Bahrain should be told that its move is a direct attack on the human rights," he told reporters.
The foreign office and the manpower ministry must now work out a strategy to assist Bangladeshi workers in distress abroad. Generally our workers abroad work very hard and they have earned a good name for themselves and the country. They have contributed positively to the economic development of the host countries as well as their own. They just can't be abandoned when they face difficulties.
Ahmed Reza
Dhanmandi,
Dhaka