According to data from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Trading, export of Bangladeshi workers during the January-June period of this calendar year posted more than 250% in growth over the same period from the previous year.
This is truly exceptional growth, especially for the second most important sector in our nation’s industry, and speaks nothing but highly of the work ethic of our migrant workers abroad.
However, as impressive as this growth trajectory is, we must never forget what is truly important when it comes to our workers overseas: Their safety.
According to a recent report, as many as 10,000 workers from South Asia and Southeast Asia die in Gulf nations every year, with half of these deaths remaining unexplained. Given the inordinate number of anecdotes that point towards worker abuse, and even torture in some instances, such numbers make sense and, as sombre as it may sound, are hardly surprising to anyone who has paid attention to this sector.
Which is why it is all the more reason that we have utterly failed those upon whose backs this nation’s current progress was built -- in consistently failing to prioritize their safety and security.
What exactly are our embassies doing?
It is their job to listen to look over their own countrymen in these host nations, and seeing how worker abuse, primarily in Gulf nations, is so rampant one would imagine that our embassies would be more pro-active in their efforts to this end.
Bangladesh owes a lot of its economic prosperity to our overseas workers; while stories of growing numbers of people finding employment overseas is a good indicator of our progress, it does nothing to maintain their right to safety and security while away from their homeland.
