Migrant Labour: Remittance in exchange of what?

Saad Adnan Khan
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When migration labour is used as the background context, and not as the subject of a television commercial, we, the consumers are basically asked to nullify our human instincts. The commercial draws a romantic picture of how life can be eased in a foreign land for a labourer after using a particular product (probably a telecommunication network that has spread beyond the borders of the country of origin). The commercial however does not show anything about the physical struggle or the hardship the labourer will go through, the discrimination he will face when it comes to wages, the sense of cluelessness he will have to deal with if he returns to his own country. The advertisement acts like a middleman, who sells dreams to potential migrant labourers in Bangladesh by not disclosing necessary information regarding everything else. It is not a surprise that the commercial lacks sentiments, given our media is driven by big corporates anyway.

Of course migration labour should not be stopped, because the country needs the money, but does the government understand that? Since there is such a huge void and miscommunication when it comes to dissemination of information, the labourers are unaware of their own rights -- right to protection, right to health access, right to be acknowledged as human beings. Let us imagine that one morning the migrant labourers stop being used to the unfairness they have to deal with as they migrate, and they revolt by saying that they will not go out of the country to work -- what happens then? The country will bear a loss of 12 billion USD, which was the annual remittance in the year 2011 (source: Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training). However, the revolt is not going to happen because thanks to all the middlemen who brain wash the young minds of the migrant labourers into believing that life abroad is a better, beautiful life compared to life in Bangladesh. Also the labourers would rather settle down and struggle abroad, since there is less opportunity to work for them in their own country. Thus the government continues to take the migrant labourers and their labour for granted, earning a free 12 billion USD without any sort of investment whatsoever.

Bangladesh signed The United Nations International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers in the year 1998, and they ratified the convention last year in September 24. The UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families is an international agreement governing the protection of migrant workers and their families. “The Government should interpret the convention into the national law. It is planning to do that as a comprehension law migration Act 2012, but it has not been passed yet. People's organisations are lobbying with the government to do so,” says Md Aminul Islam, Manager, Safe Migration Advocacy, BRAC. Even though the convention has been ratified, there is a long way to go. 69 percent of the migrant labourers migrate with the help of middlemen's information. This 69 percent is the most vulnerable group, since they are most likely to be victimised. 42 percent leaves after they receive official pre-departure training. There are 38 Technical Training Centers (TTC) set up by the government. Other than that, BRAC and Welfare Association for the Rights of Bangladeshi Emigrants (WARBE) Development Foundation are also providing pre-departure training. Government has also opened a “Probashi Kallyan Bank,” which is giving out limited loans. Most of these migrant labourers who migrate are between the ages 18-40.

One of the issues that need addressing is the reintegration of migrant labourers when they return to Bangladesh. Despite the huge amount of remittance, the labourers bring to the GDP of the country, there is hardly any mechanism to support and help them once they get back. There is no data regarding the number of returnee migrant labourers as well.

“Grassroots economy has improved due to the contribution of remittance. Families of migrant labourers who live in villages are getting money to take nutrition and to get education. It is not only the remittance, but labourers help our nation in many different ways. Since millions of young men are migrating every year, it is helping the population of the country. If they stayed back, they would have married and started families,” says Syed Saiful Haque, Chairperson, WARBE.

There are several things that the government needs to do for the departure and the reintegration of the migrant labourers. There should be zero migrant cost for the labourers. The minimum cost for migration is around 84 thousand takas. However, the labourers in Bangladesh have to pay 2-3 lakh takas to recruiting agencies and middlemen. “The government is encouraging people to migrate and work abroad, and the government is earning so much in return without any investment. It is the responsibility of the government that they pay the migration cost,” says Saiful Haque. Often times the labourers do not reveal that they have to pay so much, fearing that they might lose the chance of migrating altogether. Thus there should be a proper access and dissemination of information among the labourers.

Just like the way there are pre-departure programmes, there should be training centres for vocational and entrepreneurship training for the returnee migrant labourers. “They need more logistic support and training to open poultry farms and small businesses. Government also needs to prepare for emergency situations. The labourers who were deported from Libya recently were clueless once they got back. Bangladesh took loans from The World Bank to provide that to the labourers. If the government had stronger bi-lateral agreements with Libya, instead of an MoU (A memorandum of understanding), the government could have asked to reemploy the labourers, since the political situation has stabilised. It all comes down to good governance,” says Saiful Haque.

“BRAC has been working for the pre-departure programme for 5 years now. We have slowly started to work for reintegration as well. After assessing the needs of the most vulnerable, we give them grants, along with basic training, so that they get involved with income generation activities. We give them technical support if they want to make things for sale, or if they want to set up a nursery. We give loans of Taka 2-3 lakhs to the ones who have personal capacity and mental strength. We give them technical support as well,” says Aminul Islam.

According to International Labour Organisation (ILO), there are several terms that should not be used regarding labour migration. The term “manpower exchange” is demeaning, because the labour of the migrants gets debased to some kind of commodity. The use of “irregular,” instead of “illegal” should be practiced, because the labourers migrate in a legal way, but at some point they lose their legal status for various reasons. The use of “low skilled,” instead of “unskilled” should be facilitated, because a labourer's expertise of picking up bricks and doing construction work exemplify the struggle and years of practice. The labourers are human beings, and they are contributing to the economy of Bangladesh in the most direct and significant way. Not valuing them for their labour, not acknowledging them as human beings who deserve protection and support, and not respecting them, is not only a failure of the State, but also failure of our imagination and human instincts.

(The writer is a student of English Literature at East West University and Reporter, Star Campus.)