A section of unscrupulous private recruitment agencies is extensively cheating migrant workers out of their fortunes in the name of processing overseas jobs.
These agencies promise the job seekers better employment abroad and realise a large amount of money from the aspirants.
The burning ambition to embark on the overseas jobs drives the hopefuls crazy and makes them suffer through an endless wait. In the end, the dream never comes true.
A large number of migrated workers are also forced to return home from abroad empty-handed and feeling cheated as the recruitment agencies play them false.
Though the migrant labourers remit a huge amount of foreign exchange every year that keeps the national economy viable, cheating in the name of processing overseas jobs is rampant.
According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) website, Bangladesh received $14,163m as remittance in 2012. During the same period, the government sent a total of 607,798 workers abroad.
BMET, a regulatory body for overseas jobs under the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, received a total of 369 complaints of cheating by the agencies and their agents between January and June of 2013.
There are also 224 complaints pending from the previous year.
A chart provided by the BMET states that a total of 328 complaints are under investigation. So far, 94 complaints had been proven, while 18 were unproven and 66 settled.
BMET completed investigating 178 complaints. It collected Tk6,307,000 from the recruitment agencies on the basis of established complaints and handed the money over to the cheated migrant workers. It also cancelled the licences of 10 private recruiters who cheated migrant workers.
A number of aspiring job seekers abroad alleged that they were cheated by the recruitment agencies.
“I gave Tk50,000 to Maas Trade International Ltd, a private recruitment agency, in January 2013 to go to Libya, but the company was not sending me,” Liton (not real name) told the Dhaka Tribune over phone on Thursday.
He said: “I along with many others deposited the money to the office of Maas Trade International Ltd.
“The company repeatedly asked us to hold patience, saying we would send you soon,” the overseas jobs seeker said, adding that he was losing hope because he did not know what was actually happening.
Contacted, Maas Trade International Ltd Managing Director Aminur Rahman Harun asked: “Did I take money from you? Tell me, who claimed that I took money.” Harun spoke to the Dhaka Tribune over phone on Wednesday and then disconnected the number.
Zaher Ali, who hails from Tangail, alleged that he was not getting the wages he was promised.
“I was told that I would get 800Rial but I was getting only 500Rial as wages,” Ali told the Dhaka Tribune over phone from Saudi Arabia on Thursday.
The migrant worker claimed that he went to Saudi Arabia 19 days ago at a cost of Tk600,000 through Hoque Overseas, a private recruitment agency.
Contacted, Hoque Overseas Managing Director GM Fazlul Hoque said: “If his guardian met me with document, I would contact the company and take steps.” Bangladesh Ovibashi Mohila Sramik Association Director Sumaiya Islam said her organisation was receiving a number of allegations of cheating every day.
She also suggested that BMET open a complaint cell so that cheated migrant workers could call the organisation anytime from anywhere.
“Can a deprived migrant worker in Saudi Arabia make a written complaint to BMET?” Sumaiya asked.
Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), a research organisation for migration, observed that cheating in the name of getting the aspirants overseas jobs was rampant.
“Many migrated workers were not getting jobs abroad although they went with proper documents,” RMMRU Programme Manager Marina Sultana told the Dhaka Tribune over phone Thursday.
She said the recruitment agencies should have ensured jobs for the workers in the destination countries.
Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies M Shahjalal Mazumder said: “We would take necessary action on specific allegations if any of our members charged high migration cost or cheated the migrant workers.”
BMET Director General Begum Shamsun Nahar said fraudulent recruitment agencies would be fined and their licences cancelled if the allegations against them were established.
