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OPINION

Whither the Ministry of Labour and Manpower!

Hedayat Ahmed
Recently, a leading Bangla dally, has come out with a heart rending story of how a group of gullible Bangladeshi youth were cheated by some unscrupulous manpower recruiting agents. The report says that three recruiting agents were granted license to export Bangladeshi manpower to Saipan, a tiny island in the Pacific. The report makes a special reference to the fact that the ministry of labour and manpower acted in undue haste and granted permission to these recruiting agents to send labour to that country. Due diligence was not exercised by the ministry while processing the case nor the antecedents and past performance of these kgsqts. verified. No] effort ' wars made-by the ministry to carry out any check about the employment situation in that tiny island. Thus, several thousand Job seekers have lost their savings and now counUng their days in agony and total despondency. The report further states that presently there are 1350 Bangladeshi workers at Saipan, mostly without any regular Job. These three agencies had sent 175 persons of which 50 have not been able to secure any employment. The report further states that a 3-member team under the leadership of the state minister of labour and manpower had recently visited Saipan to evaluate the local sit-uaUon. The team noted that employment prospect in that island was rather limited.
For those who are not familiar with the locaUon of Saipan (as most of us are), it is a small island of 70 sq. miles in the Pacific. a member of Commonwealth of Northern Mariana States. Its geographical co-ordinates are 15” N laUtude and
145° E longitude. It is a US trust territory. Tourism industry is its main economy.
1 would like to ask the ministry the following questions:
(1) Why was there reported undue haste in issuing authorisation to the manpower recruiting agents?
(11) Why did not the ministry carry out a check of the employment situation at Saipan at the first instance?
(ill) What purpose was served by the ministerial visit to Saipan when it was all over?
(iv) What criminal action Is proposed to be taken against those unscrupulous agents for cheating Innocent Job seekers? Smerp flhow cause notice fol-wed:by some administrative action is nbt ehough.
(v) The officials in the ministry responsible for issuing authorisation in undue haste (may be for some consideration) should be identified and administratively dealt with.
(vi) What action (a) is proposed to be taken to avoia recurrence of such misdeeds?
I would also like to request BAI RA (Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agents) to take action against those who resort to pure exploitation of our unemployed youth and indulge in unethical practices in furtherance of their business goals. As a government recognised trade association, it has a responsibility to the community to ensure transparency in the business dealings and operations of its members. There is no denying the fact that a lot of exploitation takes place in the name of manpower export but one cannot close eyes to such blatant machinations of some agents.