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LABOUR MIGRATION

Visa trading should go

Says Bangladeshi expat in Saudi Arabia

Porimol Palma
Bangladesh should impose a total ban on visa trading by brokers to restore migration of workers to Saudi Arabia and bring discipline to the lucrative labour market in the Gulf region, said TAM Fakhrul Basher, a Bangladeshi expatriate in the kingdom.
“Visa trading is illegal in the kingdom, but widely practised. This increases the migra tion cost sharply and is the root of all prob lems in the overseas recruitment process." said Basher who has been living there for 25 years.
"Workers should not pay a single penny to go to Saudi Arabia. It is the employers who, as per Saudi laws, are supposed to bear the cost for hiring them. But, our people spend Tk 2 lakh to Tk 3 lakh to go there," he told T he Daily Star when he joined the NRB Manpower Development and Opportunities Conference in Dhaka recently.
Basher works as implementation manager of Madaf Trading & Contracting Company Limited in Riyadh.
Since 1976 around 25 lakh Bangladeshis, mostly semi- and less-skilled workers, went to Saudi Arabia, but the oil-rich Arab nation imposed a partial ban on hiring workers from Bangladesh early last year.
Explaining the background of the ban, Basher said it all started with a section of Bangladeshis' engagement with scrap business. They used to steal those and sell to others. They were caught several times that resulted in a bad image for the Bangladeshis.
In addition, there are some Bangladeshi manpower suppliers who woo the legal workers to leave their sponsors for higher salaries. When their work permits expire, they become irregular, he said, adding. “This practice is illegal and has irritated the Saudis very much.”
"Workers tend to flee their employers or steal scraps for a better income as their salary is generally low. When they pay high to go there but get low wages, it is almost natural for them to resort to such wrong doings," Basher said.
Before 1990s, the Saudi employers or their agents used to come to Bangladesh to hire workers and pay fees to the recruiting agencies for arranging workers, he said. But since 1991 the practice became just the reverse when the brokers started trading visas.
A section of Bangladeshis, including some workers in Saudi Arabia, started buying visas
from the Arab employers, offering workers low wages, he said.
"For example, if one broker offers 10,000 riyals to an employer for a worker at 500 riyals, another offers 15,000 riyals to the same employer for the worker at 300 riyals," he said, adding thus the total Saudi labour market for the Bangladeshis has got spoiled.
"So the Bangladesh government should urgently impose a total ban on visa trading. There should be no middlemen in hiring workers.”
The government should frame rules that anyone charging money from the workers should be punished, Basher said.
"I found that the visa traders have close links with the missions. This must end," he said.
Of course, he said, there is antiBangladeshi propaganda by some people of a neighboring country. So Bangladesh mission should have its press wing strengthened to counter such propaganda, he noted. Bangladesh's foreign policy towards the Middle East should be reformed, he suggested.
He said although the government claims that the Bangladeshis now can change employers, that has not happened until now. Even applications for family visas are also turned down.