CHEATING of job-seeking foreign-bound workers by local fraudulent recruiting agencies and their counterpart suppliers in the host countries has been continuing unabated. After Malaysian experience, one is now faced with the extreme plight of migrant workers in Libya at the hands of the Bangladeshi brokers and Libyan companies with dubious antecedents. Reports have it that between five and six thousand Bangladeshi workers are held in confinement in different desert locations, where Bangladesh-origin brokers in collusion with their Libyan accomplices are holding these hapless job seekers to ransom.

Unfortunately, neither the these migrant workers, nor the government ministry looking after the welfare of such hapless travellers in search of work abroad have learned any lesson from their previous experience. The Bangladesh's labour counsellor in Libya, though he is in the know of such misfortune of the migrant job seekers appeared to be helpless about the matter. It is reflective of the lack of coordination between the Bangladeshi missions abroad, the government ministry concerned and the agencies looking after the recruitment of these workers. It seems the government's earlier plan of employing professionals at the foreign missions to handle problems of this nature is yet to take effect.

This disturbing report from Libya leaves little room for the government to wait any further about taking prompt action to stop such harassment of Bangladeshi workers abroad. In this context, one needs to bear in mind that this African country holds out huge potential for exporting our manpower there, as the US$100 billion worth development projects it has undertaken would create the employment opportunity for about one million foreign workers. But to all intents and purposes, such prospect is getting ruined at the hands of a handful of frauds at home and abroad as the government is proving to be rather slow to respond.

The manpower recruiting agencies with good track records and the government people concerned need to act quickly to grab the opportunity. But to make that possible, it will be necessary to mount a strict watch on the agencies operating in the manpower business. The first and foremost task would be to screen out people with criminal records from the trade and punish those and ensure that other such elements may not infiltrate into the business.

The way the foreign missions abroad are trying to face up to the suffering of the migrant workers needs some reconsideration. For before having any clear idea of which employing company in Libya has dubious records, staggering the supply of Bangladeshi labourers to the organisation looking for overseas workers may not be the right response.

In fact, the local Bangladeshi mission, the Libyan government and Bangladesh government need to work in sync to avoid such fraudulent employments.

At home, on the other hand, an awareness campaign has to be raised among the common people so that job seekers may not walk into the trap set by impostors and fake recruiting agencies.