Those who are trying to leave the country in illegal way will be brought to book, along with the middlemen involved in human trafficking, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said yesterday.
“They are tainting the image of the country along with putting their lives in danger,” she said at a meeting with senior officials of the Labour and Employment Ministry at the Secretariat, the BSS reported.
“I think such an unlawful trend may stop if the fortune-seekers who are moving from the country illegally are punished as well as the middlemen.”
The prime minister referred to the hundreds of Rohingyas and some Bangladeshis who have landed in overcrowded boats on the shores of various Southeast Asian countries on their sea voyage to Malaysia as human smugglers abandoned their boats because of crackdowns by authorities.
She said these people have no idea where they are actually heading towards. “Now their bodies are found in forests.”
The prime minister asked the Labour and Employment Ministry to carry out campaign to stop illegal migration and human trafficking.
“You will have to conduct publicity campaigns so that the migrant people learn that they do not need to give money to the middlemen for going abroad, and by doing so they fall into a trap.”
Briefly describing the various initiatives taken by her government for the welfare of migrants and expatriates, she said it was painful that some people are stepping towards an uncertain journey.
“Why are they going? … It is not correct that all of them are doing this because of poverty … It seems as though they are running after the golden deer, they think a lot of money can be earned abroad … This is a sort of mental illness,” she said, as reported by the UNB.
Hasina said these fortune-seekers can do something to earn their livelihood in the country with the money they are giving to the middlemen. “They could have led a comfortable life and engaged in better jobs here.”
She said the government has been able to regularise the status of 650,000 illegal Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia and over 800,000 in Saudi Arabia through fruitful discussions with the respective governments.
Terming the Awami League government as a labour-friendly one, the prime minister said her government was determined to ensure the welfare of the working class, and 29 labour welfare centres in the country’s industrial zones are providing services to this end.
She mentioned the steps taken by the Awami League-led governments on Labour Act and Labour Policy and said the Bangabandhu government had framed the Labour Policy in 1972 to establish an exploitation-free society and formed Labour Directorate in 1974.
In continuation of the steps, the government made the Labour Act 2006 more time-befitting by amending it in July 2013 to protect the interests of the working class, she said.
Hasina said the National Labour Policy 2012 and the National Professional Health and Safety Policy 2013 have been formulated by her government to industrialise the country, ensure compliance and sustain in competitive external trade and commerce.
She mentioned that the National Industrial Health and Security Council has been formed for the first time in Bangladesh with labour and employment affairs minister as its chairman.
The prime minister said the Child Labour Policy 2010 has been formulated fixing 38 types of works as risk-prone for children as these are harmful in consideration of child health, security and morality.
Stressing the need for enhancing training programmes to develop skilled manpower, the prime minister said steps would have to be taken to impart training on language, works and law of the country where the workers want to go.
She said during the tenure of her government since 2009, nearly 850,000 youths have been trained and employment opportunities have been created for over 240,000 unemployed youths at home.
She also mentioned the creation of self-employment through distribution of collateral-free loans, national service guarantee scheme, information service activities in rural areas, one house one farm project and expansion of vocational education.
Coming down heavily on the foreign countries that are talking too much about wages and working conditions at various factories and industrial organisations in Bangladesh, the prime minister said they would have to first look at their own houses.
