Public servants asked to expand legal migration, prevent illegal trafficking
Saturday, 23 August 2008
Public servants have been urged to expand legal migration opportunities to prevent illegal migration and trafficking of people, reports bdnews24.com.
Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury made the appeal while speaking at the inaugural function of a workshop on "Migration and Human Trafficking" jointly organised by Foreign Service Academy and International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Dhaka at a city hotel Thursday.
Dr Iftekhar said that human trafficking had become an alarming migration issue, with the perpetrators easily luring jobless people into being bought and sold.
"In a country where unemployment is pervasive and opportunities are limited, illegal human traffickers do not have to try too hard to mislead the millions of job seekers." "But we must make trafficking immensely costly for traffickers," the foreign adviser warned.
"Although human trafficking is a relatively new issue of migration, it is becoming more and more a concern for both the government and non-government organisations working in the field," he said.
Daily Sangbad executive editor Manzurul Ahasan Bulbul stressed effective government-media collaboration to combat illegal migration and human trafficking.
Human rights lawyer barrister Sara Hossain expressed the need to consider using international migrant rights and human rights instruments to protect the rights of migrant workers.
IOM's regional representative Rabab Fatima and Foreign Service Academy's principal ambassador Shahed Akhtar also spoke at the inaugural ceremony.
Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury made the appeal while speaking at the inaugural function of a workshop on "Migration and Human Trafficking" jointly organised by Foreign Service Academy and International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Dhaka at a city hotel Thursday.
Dr Iftekhar said that human trafficking had become an alarming migration issue, with the perpetrators easily luring jobless people into being bought and sold.
"In a country where unemployment is pervasive and opportunities are limited, illegal human traffickers do not have to try too hard to mislead the millions of job seekers." "But we must make trafficking immensely costly for traffickers," the foreign adviser warned.
"Although human trafficking is a relatively new issue of migration, it is becoming more and more a concern for both the government and non-government organisations working in the field," he said.
Daily Sangbad executive editor Manzurul Ahasan Bulbul stressed effective government-media collaboration to combat illegal migration and human trafficking.
Human rights lawyer barrister Sara Hossain expressed the need to consider using international migrant rights and human rights instruments to protect the rights of migrant workers.
IOM's regional representative Rabab Fatima and Foreign Service Academy's principal ambassador Shahed Akhtar also spoke at the inaugural ceremony.