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Torture of Migrant Workers

Govt delegation to meet Saudi authorities

Jamil Mahmud
Against the backdrop of recent protests over alleged abuse and torture of female migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, a government delegation is going to hold meeting with Saudi authorities in Riyadh on Wednesday.
The joint technical committee (JTC) meeting is likely to shed light on “streamlining" the processes regarding migrant workers'— both male and female - visa, stay and iqama (work permit) in the Gulf country, said Golam Moshi, Bangladeshi ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
"The existing challenges will be addressed and a way to resolve those will be found out," he told The Daily Star over phone.
"Saudi employers demand skilled labourers but we are unable to prepare our workers as skilled. It is a challenge," he added.
Asked, the ambassador said he is not ready to say that abuse or torture against female migrant workers does not take place in the Gulf country.
However, female workers had seldom complained over such issues before the embassy prior to their departure from Saudi Arabia, but raised those only when they were back home, he said.
The embassy can fight for them on legal grounds upon receiving complaints, he further said.
A Saudi deputy minister is likely to head the Saudi delegation in the )TC meeting, Moshi said.
Meanwhile, a five-member delegation of the Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, headed by its secretary Salim Reza, will travel to Riyadh for the meeting, said a government order.
The ambassador, labour counsellor and other relevant officials from the embassy will join the delegation, it added.
Bangladesh has been sending female migrant workers to Saudi Arabia under a domestic workers' agreement signed between the two countries in 2015. Since then, some three lakh female workers were sent to the country until October this year, says Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training data.
Of them, some 8,507 female workers were brought back home through safe home assistance, said Zahid Hossain, joint secretary of the expatriates' welfare ministry.
Zahid, who will join the meeting, told this paper that at the JTC meeting they would discuss issues such as recruitment of female workers through an IT-based system known as "Musaned".
Recurring workers via the platform will help knowing whereabouts of female workers effectively as it will consist information of workers, their Saudi recruiters and employers as well as Bangladeshi recruiting agencies, he said.
In recent weeks, a series of protests by
citizens' bodies under different banners took place in Dhaka and Chattogram. Demonstrators raised issues such as ensuring safe migration of female workers in Saudi Arabia and other countries, addressing their sufferings before international communities for creating pressure to bring guilty Saudi employers to book, and ensuring due compensation for tortured workers through legal means.
Labour migration expert Asif Munier said the Bangladesh government needs to project its position clearly during the meeting.
"It is true that Bangladesh needs to send its human resources overseas for earning more remittance. However, Saudi Arabia is also in need of foreign workers," he said.
So, a "bargaining position" has to be created in such bilateral meetings so that migrant workers can be benefited most, he added.