Hard reforms are overdue in the vital sector
Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Khaled Hussain from Toronto
AS non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs), we appreciate the initiative to have an aggressive reform of our manpower sector to reduce the suffering of the people -- those who are selling their valuable assets to work abroad. These people are sending their hard-earned money and, therefore, the reserve of foreign currency in Bangladesh Bank is piling up. Government is paying off their foreign debt and paying the import bills with that foreign currency.
In return, these foreign currency remitters deserve something in return from the Government of Bangladesh (GoB). Enjoying the benefits of higher inflows of remittances, the GoB needs to do lot more for the remitters as well.
These are not new issues in our beloved Bangladesh. We do not blame only the recruiting agencies. There is a lot of crooked immigration officials and others are working within this chain and everybody get piece of the pie. Otherwise, how the camel boys are going abroad and get killed. We are glad to know that some country is paying compensation for dead or injured camel boys. According to other recent news, 40 people are starving to death in Malaysia due to unscrupulous manpower agent.
These people should be not only be punished, need to be sent to prison for life time. There are thousands of stories in this sector. Everybody knows that. But the time should come under this present government to have aggressive reforms in this sector.
There is a saying, "law is not a law, unless there is enforcement". We have lot of laws but lack of enforcement. On these manpower issues, we would like to add up another issue. Recently there is an advertisement published in a Toronto-based Bengali weekly about recruitment of Bangladeshi workers for Alberta Province of Canada. It has been mentioned in the advertisement that Bangladesh Overseas Employment Services Ltd. (BOESL) is involved in the process of this recruitment.
This Canadian company has signed a couple or more memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with BOESL to send Bangladeshi workers not only to Canada but also to all over the world. Our question is: before signing up the agreement with this company, has BOESL done proper investigation about the legitimacy of this recruitment process?
It is well know that Alberta and British Columbia provinces of Canada have been suffering from shortage of semi-skilled and skilled workers. That is why they are aggressively looking for temporary foreign workers. It doesn't mean that anybody can provide them. We strongly support and encourage the GoB to avail this exceptional opportunity by exporting Bangladeshi workers to Canada. But this should be a proper and legal process. Before signing up the MOUs, BOESL should find out whether the Canadian company is a "legal employment agency".
So far, in our understanding, the company does not have any "employment agency license" in Alberta, even anywhere else in Canada, which is a legal requirement. Another critical issue, as per Alberta Provincial Law, no employment agency is allowed to collect any money (service charge, administrative cost etc.) from the people who are seeking employment in Alberta. As BOESL is a government agency, it should be aware of that regulation.
Otherwise the GoB will be in a situation to collect money from the workers, which is totally illegal. Right now it seems that without doing proper and prior inquiries by the Bangladesh High Commission, Ottawa, Canada and Alberta Provincial Government, the BOESL is patronising an illegal activity. As a result innocent poor workers from Bangladesh need to pay an enormous amount of money just for nothing, which could be done with very minimum expense (not 0.4 million +, may be few thousand takas only).
In conclusion, We want to mention that the GoB- BOESL should not rip off poor Bangladeshi workers. If there is scope available for exporting workers at minimum expense, why not that opportunity is exploited. Moreover, this scribe had sent an e-mail to all the related departments (BOESL, BMET, MEWOE) in connection. I believe, they did not care at all about it.
This is another problem with our bureaucrats; they do not have time to reply back. That is why I have taken this liberty to make our poor job seekers aware about the situation. Please try to avoid to get into this crooked process. At last, if anybody likes to get proper information about the related recruitment process, please feel free to write to us by e-mail only. My main intention is to increase the number of members of our community in Canada by assisting them properly.
(The writer is based in Toronto, Canada and can be reached at e-mail: [email protected])
AS non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs), we appreciate the initiative to have an aggressive reform of our manpower sector to reduce the suffering of the people -- those who are selling their valuable assets to work abroad. These people are sending their hard-earned money and, therefore, the reserve of foreign currency in Bangladesh Bank is piling up. Government is paying off their foreign debt and paying the import bills with that foreign currency.
In return, these foreign currency remitters deserve something in return from the Government of Bangladesh (GoB). Enjoying the benefits of higher inflows of remittances, the GoB needs to do lot more for the remitters as well.
These are not new issues in our beloved Bangladesh. We do not blame only the recruiting agencies. There is a lot of crooked immigration officials and others are working within this chain and everybody get piece of the pie. Otherwise, how the camel boys are going abroad and get killed. We are glad to know that some country is paying compensation for dead or injured camel boys. According to other recent news, 40 people are starving to death in Malaysia due to unscrupulous manpower agent.
These people should be not only be punished, need to be sent to prison for life time. There are thousands of stories in this sector. Everybody knows that. But the time should come under this present government to have aggressive reforms in this sector.
There is a saying, "law is not a law, unless there is enforcement". We have lot of laws but lack of enforcement. On these manpower issues, we would like to add up another issue. Recently there is an advertisement published in a Toronto-based Bengali weekly about recruitment of Bangladeshi workers for Alberta Province of Canada. It has been mentioned in the advertisement that Bangladesh Overseas Employment Services Ltd. (BOESL) is involved in the process of this recruitment.
This Canadian company has signed a couple or more memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with BOESL to send Bangladeshi workers not only to Canada but also to all over the world. Our question is: before signing up the agreement with this company, has BOESL done proper investigation about the legitimacy of this recruitment process?
It is well know that Alberta and British Columbia provinces of Canada have been suffering from shortage of semi-skilled and skilled workers. That is why they are aggressively looking for temporary foreign workers. It doesn't mean that anybody can provide them. We strongly support and encourage the GoB to avail this exceptional opportunity by exporting Bangladeshi workers to Canada. But this should be a proper and legal process. Before signing up the MOUs, BOESL should find out whether the Canadian company is a "legal employment agency".
So far, in our understanding, the company does not have any "employment agency license" in Alberta, even anywhere else in Canada, which is a legal requirement. Another critical issue, as per Alberta Provincial Law, no employment agency is allowed to collect any money (service charge, administrative cost etc.) from the people who are seeking employment in Alberta. As BOESL is a government agency, it should be aware of that regulation.
Otherwise the GoB will be in a situation to collect money from the workers, which is totally illegal. Right now it seems that without doing proper and prior inquiries by the Bangladesh High Commission, Ottawa, Canada and Alberta Provincial Government, the BOESL is patronising an illegal activity. As a result innocent poor workers from Bangladesh need to pay an enormous amount of money just for nothing, which could be done with very minimum expense (not 0.4 million +, may be few thousand takas only).
In conclusion, We want to mention that the GoB- BOESL should not rip off poor Bangladeshi workers. If there is scope available for exporting workers at minimum expense, why not that opportunity is exploited. Moreover, this scribe had sent an e-mail to all the related departments (BOESL, BMET, MEWOE) in connection. I believe, they did not care at all about it.
This is another problem with our bureaucrats; they do not have time to reply back. That is why I have taken this liberty to make our poor job seekers aware about the situation. Please try to avoid to get into this crooked process. At last, if anybody likes to get proper information about the related recruitment process, please feel free to write to us by e-mail only. My main intention is to increase the number of members of our community in Canada by assisting them properly.
(The writer is based in Toronto, Canada and can be reached at e-mail: [email protected])