Several issues regarding migration loan, establishing medical centers at sub-district level, skill training, broker dealing, proper documentation and awareness for safe migration have been discussed by the participants at IID’s Policy Forum on Migration held in Tangail.
The forum is attended by the local political leaders, aspirant migrants, returnee migrants, brokers, NGO activists, local CSOs, youth group representatives, UNO, fairer labour migration project local partners. IID organized the event, in partnership with RMMRU, on 3rd of August 2018, as a part of its series of policy advocacy initiative to encourage fairer labour migration.
The event was moderated by Syeed Ahamed, CEO of IID. During the forum, he advocated for the idea of a model high commission for migrant-friendly services at the consulates. The participants also raised a number of issues to improve the overall migration-governance scenario–
Problems faced by unregistered migrants:
Unregistered migrants who go through informal channels sometimes do not get appointed in the job as he/she was promised. Most of the returnee migrants claim that they get the contract paper after departure or at the airport, when it is too late to review it.
Medical service at district level: Medical fitness is a pre-requisite for getting visa. It takes time to complete medical check-up and get clearances, sometimes migrants have to repeat the medical tests if they get rejected, legally or illegally. Establishing medical centers for migrants at sub-district level is important so that people do not need to travel far for medical examination.
download the event report for Fairer Labour Migration Policy Forum
Proper documentation: Usually, there is no practice of keeping record of money transaction between broker and aspirant migrant- which leads to fraudulent by the broker. To solve this, both parties can sign an agreement paper or a non-judicial stamp as a record of money transaction in front of the local influential people or chairman.
Migration loan problem: Representative of ProbashiKollyan Bank (PKB) who is responsible to provide loan to the migrants claims that due to lack of enough evidence submitted by the aspirant migrants; bank finds it difficult to provide loans at the right time. However, migrants complain that PKB demands a lot of documents which make the borrowing process lengthy.
Promoting awareness in three steps: A local NGO worker explains their process of awareness rising session they run regularly in three steps- before migration, during migration and after returning home. Before migration- skill training for the particular work migrant worker would be appointed for, language training for the destination country, proper documentation of transaction with broker and keeping two copies of all the papers. During migration- sending remittance through formal channel, keeping money in two accounts; one for expenses and another to save money. After return- invest the saved amount in some sort of business.
Disseminate circular to remote areas: Circulars published for migrants should be delivered to the furthest corner of the country which will make the aspirant migrants aware of the demands for migrants and cost of migration in different countries.