The provisions are on checking human trafficking in the form of illegal manpower export and on punitive measures against Bangladeshi expatriates if they call strikes or get involved in the politics of the host countries.

The meeting held at the Cabinet Division also deliberated on how to stop irregular migration in the name of tourism. The subcommittee will hold its next meeting within a month, where it will finalise the government's manpower export policy now being drafted, meeting sources said.

Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan chaired the meeting, participated by Law Minister Moudud Ahmed, State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfuzzaman Babar, State Minister for Civil Aviation Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and State Minister for Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Mohammad Quamrul Islam.

The ministries of expatriate welfare, civil aviation and home affairs will hold a number of meetings and include the provisions in the policy before finalising it in the next month's cabinet subcommittee meeting, Quamrul Islam told The Daily Star.

The policy would be made public after cabinet approves it, he added.

The government undertook the initiative to prepare a comprehensive manpower export policy in 2003. But it has spent almost two years merely discussing the draft.

Though over 2.50 lakh people leave the country every year for jobs abroad, there is not and never was any policy guideline for manpower export, which has been damaging the sector a lot.