Good governance and political will are must for ensuring fair and ethical recruitment of the migrant workers, said rights campaigners and civil society members on Sunday.
They also stressed the need for proper implementation of existing laws to curb malpractice in this sector.
The speakers made the observation at a workshop on 'Fair and Ethical Overseas Recruitment: Service Providers' Perspective', organised by Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Programme (OKUP) at the National Press Club in the city.
In his presentation on the recruitment policy and practice, OKUP Chairperson Shakirul Islam said that the fair and ethical recruitment could ensure reduction of migration costs and protection of migrants' rights.
In light of the Global Compact on Migration, he said that migrant workers would be sent abroad at zero cost.
He said the job contracts of the workers to be given to them before their migration and written in their own language.
Inspection and monitoring should be strengthened by the government agencies concerned, he added.
OKUP Executive Director Omar Faruque Chowdhury said that proper utilisation of upgraded database of the migrant workers could cut the involvement of middlemen from recruitment process.
"Due to lack of good governance and accountability, the migrant workers are being harassed by the middlemen and recruitment agencies," he noted.
Deputy Director of National Legal Aid Service organisation Shalehuzzaman, who is also a joint district judge, emphasised on raising awareness about safe migration.
"People should be made aware about the safe migration," he said.
The recruitment agencies should open their branches to people's doorsteps to extend the manpower recruitment services to them, he said.
Former general secretary of Dhaka Reporters' Unity (DRU) Raju Ahmed said that involvement of the middlemen in the recruitment process has become a reality and mechanism should be developed to bring them under legal framework.
New Age journalist Md Owasim Uddin Bhuyan, Panel lawyer of the Bangladesh Society for Enforcement of Human Rights Firoz Mahmud, Winrock International's Programme Officer Zahidul Islam and overseas job seeker Sonia Begum were also present at the workshop and spoke.
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