Ethical recruitment of migrant workers will be easier to ensure if the labor-sending countries come to an agreement on common margin of pay and job standards.
Imran Ahmad, honorable Minister for expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment, called for a compact of migrant sending countries at a high level consultation on global governance of migration. The Secretary of the Ministry Rownaq Jahan echoed with the statement and requested the Minister to lead this campaign.
Members of Parliament from Nepal, Bangladesh and the Philippines also supported the idea of such a compact, as it was also highlighted during parliamentarians’ meeting.
Bangladesh is in a unique position to carry forward this campaign as it is the Chair on ethical recruitment practices at the Colombo Process, which is the regional consultative process of Asian labor-sending countries. Alexis Nadine Bautista, Project Coordinator of MFA, also expressed that building South Asian compact can be a step towards ethical migration.
The event was held on 30th July 2019 at the BOESL conference room of Probashi Kallyan Bhaban. The high-level consultation on ‘Global Governance of Migration’ was organized by IID and BNSK in collaboration with Migrant Forum in Asia and with supported from PROKAS.
Additional Secretary Ahmed Munirus Saleheen made the keynote presentation. He mentioned that as sending country we can not implement standard laws in the destination countries, and absence of representatives of International Labor Organization in many destination countries make the situation worse.
Nazrul Islam, DG of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, highlighted the 36 recommendations for implementing GCM that were captured by the Dhaka Declaration during a regional consultation on GCM.
Syeed Ahamed, CEO of IID, highlighted in his presentation on how civil society organizations are working as a catalyst to ensure evidence-based implementation of GCM.
Other distinguished participants included— honorable Members of Parliaments Shameem Haider Patwary, MP of Bangladesh; Deepak Prakash Bhatt, MP, Ram Kumari Jhakri, MP, Prakash Rasaili Snehe, MP and Amrita Devi Agrahari, MP of Nepal; Aniceto D. Bertiz III, MP of Philippines; Som Prasad Lamichhane, Secretary General of Pravasi Nepali Co-Ordination Committee and representatives from development partners including the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh, UN Women, ICMPD, ILO, IOM, Solidarity Centre and British Council were present in the event.
Sumaiya Islam of BNSK and Syeed Ahamed of IID facilitated the discussion.
The findings of the discussion will be followed up with the respective ministries to ensure that they reach the global forums.
