Past Events 2019

Unveiling the report Dr. Siddiqui said that up to November 2019 a total of 6,04,060 Bangladeshi workers migrated to the Gulf, South East Asia and other destination countries. If this trend continues, there will be a drop in migration rate of 10% this year from last year. In spite of high rate of return of female migrants this year, there has been an overall increase in migration of women by 4.52% over 2018 rate. Last year (2018) a total of US$15.64 billion was received as remittances, which by the end of 2019 is expected to be increased by 17.05% (to around 18.19 billion). The increase in remittance flow to an extent has been due to government initiative to offer 2% incentive on remittances sent through the banking channel. Dr. Tasneem Siddiqui expressed concern about India’s initiatives regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act and the NRC. She mentioned that although the Indian authorities have assured Bangladesh that there will be no deportation press reports inform that push in of people from India have already begun.

Emphasizing on skilled migration Advocate Shahdeen Malik said that we need to change the curriculum of our education system as it is not supportive to produce skilled human resource.

Nearly 85 journalists from different electronic and print media were present at the press conference. And 13 electronic and more than 15 media print media covered the news.

Below please find the links to the coverage of the press conference.

RMMRU joined in the rally organised by the MoEWOE. Among others BMET, PKB, WEWB, BAIRA and variou service providing institutions and other stakeholders joined the rally on the first day and other programmes on the second day. On the second day the programme was divided into various segments: cultural programmes stall display, award-giving ceremony etc. After the inaugural sessionthe prime minister of Bangladesh visited different stalls. RMMRU took a stall at BICC which was decorated with the posters of migrant workers. A set of publications like books, policy briefs, video documentations on migration and documents on Rohingyas were displayed in the stall. Minister Mr. Imran Ahmad, MP, Secretary Mr. Salim Reza of Ministry of Expatriate’s Welfare and Overseas Employment along with other senior officials visited RMMRU Stall. Appreciating RMMRU’s activities in protecting migrants Mr. Imran Ahmed asked RMMRU to provide suggestions to develop migration sector.

The conference was carried out using a participatory approach. A moderator, two to three panelists, one migrant, and a session chair conducted each session. The moderators presented the issues and then requested each panelist to elaborate on the major challenges encountered by the concerned issue. Major issues addressed during the conference include protection of migrant workers, migrants vulnerability to radicalization, climate change-induced migration, ethical recruitment, skills development and utilization, decentralization of migration governance, social and economic costs of migration, remittance, re-integration of returnee migrants, etc. Policymakers, academics, activists, migrants and international migration experts participated in the event.

Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Expatriates ' Welfare and Overseas Employment Dr. Ahmed Munirus Saleheen as Chair of the Conference's Inaugural Session said “Migration is now considered as an asset. When we considered about the decade, we have to consider the formation.” He emphasized holistic synchronization, mentioning that the government is active in devising some methods in bringing the involvement of middleman within certain accountability framework.

Ms. Laetitia Weibel Roberts, Chief Technical Advisor, Migration Policy for Decent Work for Migrant workers Project ILO, as a special guest of the inaugural session mentioned that, for country of destination, labor migration contribute to economic growth through the provision of labor skills and ideas and for country of origin, the movement of women and men across the border reduce underemployment pressure and increase remittances.

Mr. Gerry Fox, Team Leader, PROKAS, British Council said that the collaboration of NGOs, civil society and Government can create a useful example to achieve a great result in this regard. Through this conference, it is possible to bring Government, Private sector and civil society together. Thus, we can identify the gaps in the migration system and mitigate them.

Ms. Judith Herbertson, Country representative, DFID as Special Guest said that the Government of Bangladesh recognizes the significance of migrant workers in the economy and is assembling positive transformation into a middle-income country and this initiative is highly appreciable.
Shirin Akhter, MP and parliamentarian caucus on migration and development, mentioned that she will take essential initiative to establish the topic of the conference to the government and must not be neglected to be raised in the parliament too so that the initiative of RMMRU for the declaration of 2021-2030 as the Decade of Migration in Bangladesh does not stay limited within the whelm of this conference.

Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman, Former Advisor to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh and Chairman, Power and Participation Research Centre, Dhaka strongly plead to let ‘Decade of Migration in Bangladesh’ be declared ‘the Decade of migration and migrants’ because would me putting the focus on the process hence the focus on the people.

Mr. Piyasiri Wickramasekara, a migration think tank from Sri Lanka along with two other international migration experts from Singapore and Malaysia moderated sessions and shared their valuable insights. A team of parliamentarians from the Philippines and Nepal shared their wealth of knowledge and ideas that added particular importance to the event.

The major output of the conference will be a comprehensive policy document for advocacy in favor of the declaration of a migration decade with high-level officials. Intermediate outcome will be the development of an Action Plan for engaging with policymakers and stakeholders for achieving the goal. The outcome envisaged is declaration of a Migration Decade by the government. The expected impact of the action will be, ‘Migrants rights protected, their welfare promoted and national development augmented’.

RMMRU organized a capacity development training for UDC Entrepreneurs and 333 call centre agents with Access to Information (a2i). This is a collaborative initiative between RMMRU and a2i under access to safe migration information services at door steps through 333 and digital centre project. Through this Capacity development training UDC representatives and 333 call center agents gathered knowledge about basic concept of Migration, safe Migration, steps and process of migration like visa processing, online registration, roles and responsibilities of recruiting agencies, fraudulence in migration sector, human trafficking, Online complain mechanism, remittance management process, stakeholders related to migration sector etc. one of BMET representative was present there to demonstrate government’s available digital services in migration to the participants.This initiative is designed under the Fairer Labour Migration project (FLM) of PROKAS programme, British Council to ensure safe migration and protection of migrants’ rights by providing easy access of migration information and services through UDC’s and 333 call centre.

a2i e-service specialist Mohammad Ashraful Amin and RMMRU Director, Programme Marina Sultana, among others, were present at the capacity development training.

RMMRU organized a meeting with Journalist on 12 January 2019 at Poshoshik Parshad Hall Room, Tangial. Marina Sultana Director Programme, RMMRU moderated the meeting. She introduces RMMRU briefly including its activities in national and grassroots level. In this meeting Mr. Masaraf Hossain Khan, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Tangail, Mr. Kazi Golam Ahad, District Information Officer were present as guest. The aim of meeting was to build up network and relations among grassroots level journalist. In this meeting main discussion points were ensuring the access of justice through mediation, ensuring services in a faster way, reducing the risk of fraudulence etc. The participants of the meeting were 50 including 28 journalists.

Objective of the Orientation
• Building network with local level media and sharing knowledge of migration sector
• Discuss about migration services provided by RMMRU and information about safe migration as well as fraudulence practices at grassroots level

Main discussion of the meeting
Mr. Masaraf Hossain Khan, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Tangail said that the activities of RMMRU have to inform to chairman of all Union Parisad so that they can inform migrants of their area. It will disseminate information of safe migration and migration mediation to migrant community.
‘I like the activities of RMMRU at grassroots level. Although RMMRU is conducting its activities specially mediation in 4 areas of Tangail only, it should cover more areas so that more people get the opportunity to take services from RMMRU’ said Mr. Kazi Golam Ahad, District Information Officer.
Mr.Jafar Ahmed, Secretary of Tangail Press Club appreciated RMMRU’s work and expects the good work not to confine within three unions only. Hemayet Hossain Himu added similar kinds of initiatives need to be taken in the migration prawn area like Mirzapur, Gopalpur, Shakhipur.