Govt probing visa forgery of workers going to Libya
Friday, 15 January 2010
A Z M Anas
The government is investigating detail causes of deportation of hundreds of Bangladeshi workers from Libya as part of its exercise to clean up fraudulent practices in overseas recruitment, officials said Wednesday.
They said the Home Ministry and the state-run Bureau of Manpower have launched separate probes to find out the culprits involved in sending migrants with false documents.
In the latest incident, a total of 50 Bangladeshi migrants, were detained in Libya and later sent back to Bangladesh as their visas and work permits were found to be forged.
Currently, an estimated 87,000 Bangladeshis are working in Libya, most of whom are in its booming construction sector. Some 24,000 found jobs in the oil-rich North African nation in 2009 after Dhaka and Tripoli signed a manpower export deal in 2008.
"The investigation is going on. We have zero tolerance for fraud in overseas recruitment," an official at the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) said.
The official declined to say whether the probe bodies found links between private recruiters and government agencies in the smuggling of humans as the probe is yet to be concluded.
But he made it clear that the government was committed to taking stern action against government officials or private recruiting firms, if proved guilty.
Another official said the Home Ministry is probing into how some of Bangladeshi workers found their way into Libya 'illegally', escaping the eyes of law enforcement agencies posted in the country's airports.
The BMET official said 18 workers of 50 were deported despite having genuine work permits.
But he could not say when the investigation would conclude and whether the report would be made public.
Migration experts say the authorities should tighten vigilance at the Zia International Airport to prevent potential workers from sneaking into foreign lands without valid and genuine documents.
They also say the recurrent incidents of visa forgery and exploitation of Bangladeshi workers by recruiting agencies are denting the country's image abroad.
Officials say Libya's labour market is crucial in view of the country's floundering overseas job market in the wake of global recession.
Workers' deployment almost halved last year after peaking at 875,000 in 2008, due mainly to the negative impact of global economic crisis on Bangladesh's traditional overseas job markets.
But the annual flow of migrants' remittances has remained unhurt, registering a record high of $10.7 billion in 2009.
The amount is 19.39 per cent higher than what the country's 6.0 million-plus overseas class remitted in 2008, central bank data show.
Malaysia, which was the third largest employer of Bangladeshi workers in 2008, cancelled 55,000 visas in last March, the biggest by a single nation.
Stung by the downturn, the UAE's Dubai emirate deported tens of thousands of foreign workers, while Saudi Arabia has continued suspension of issuing fresh visas for Bangladeshis.
Official statistics say, some 72,000 Bangladeshis returned home throughout last year, with Saudi Arabia alone deporting the highest 23,000, followed by Dubai.
"Libyan market is expected to more than offset the job losses of Bangladeshis elsewhere. We can give you a clear picture after the return of the minister," an official at the expatriate welfare and overseas employment ministry told the FE.
An eight-member delegation led by overseas employment and labour minister Khondker Mosharraf Hossain is now in Libya as part of the diplomatic drive to address the recent impasse in the labour deployment.
Libya's economic activities have sprung back to life since 2006 when the United States erased its name from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. In 2003, the United Nations lifted sanctions on it.
The government is investigating detail causes of deportation of hundreds of Bangladeshi workers from Libya as part of its exercise to clean up fraudulent practices in overseas recruitment, officials said Wednesday.
They said the Home Ministry and the state-run Bureau of Manpower have launched separate probes to find out the culprits involved in sending migrants with false documents.
In the latest incident, a total of 50 Bangladeshi migrants, were detained in Libya and later sent back to Bangladesh as their visas and work permits were found to be forged.
Currently, an estimated 87,000 Bangladeshis are working in Libya, most of whom are in its booming construction sector. Some 24,000 found jobs in the oil-rich North African nation in 2009 after Dhaka and Tripoli signed a manpower export deal in 2008.
"The investigation is going on. We have zero tolerance for fraud in overseas recruitment," an official at the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) said.
The official declined to say whether the probe bodies found links between private recruiters and government agencies in the smuggling of humans as the probe is yet to be concluded.
But he made it clear that the government was committed to taking stern action against government officials or private recruiting firms, if proved guilty.
Another official said the Home Ministry is probing into how some of Bangladeshi workers found their way into Libya 'illegally', escaping the eyes of law enforcement agencies posted in the country's airports.
The BMET official said 18 workers of 50 were deported despite having genuine work permits.
But he could not say when the investigation would conclude and whether the report would be made public.
Migration experts say the authorities should tighten vigilance at the Zia International Airport to prevent potential workers from sneaking into foreign lands without valid and genuine documents.
They also say the recurrent incidents of visa forgery and exploitation of Bangladeshi workers by recruiting agencies are denting the country's image abroad.
Officials say Libya's labour market is crucial in view of the country's floundering overseas job market in the wake of global recession.
Workers' deployment almost halved last year after peaking at 875,000 in 2008, due mainly to the negative impact of global economic crisis on Bangladesh's traditional overseas job markets.
But the annual flow of migrants' remittances has remained unhurt, registering a record high of $10.7 billion in 2009.
The amount is 19.39 per cent higher than what the country's 6.0 million-plus overseas class remitted in 2008, central bank data show.
Malaysia, which was the third largest employer of Bangladeshi workers in 2008, cancelled 55,000 visas in last March, the biggest by a single nation.
Stung by the downturn, the UAE's Dubai emirate deported tens of thousands of foreign workers, while Saudi Arabia has continued suspension of issuing fresh visas for Bangladeshis.
Official statistics say, some 72,000 Bangladeshis returned home throughout last year, with Saudi Arabia alone deporting the highest 23,000, followed by Dubai.
"Libyan market is expected to more than offset the job losses of Bangladeshis elsewhere. We can give you a clear picture after the return of the minister," an official at the expatriate welfare and overseas employment ministry told the FE.
An eight-member delegation led by overseas employment and labour minister Khondker Mosharraf Hossain is now in Libya as part of the diplomatic drive to address the recent impasse in the labour deployment.
Libya's economic activities have sprung back to life since 2006 when the United States erased its name from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. In 2003, the United Nations lifted sanctions on it.