INTERNATIONAL MIGRANTS’ DAY : Serving Bangladeshi migrants at destination
by CR Abrar
EARLY this week, news reports informed that Bangladesh embassy in Bahrain has requested the authorities concerned in Dhaka to consider appointing a full-time dedicated legal consultant to deal with burgeoning number of cases involving Bangladeshi migrant workforce in the Gulf state. Currently, three part-time lawyers render services to the workers. Despite being efficient, time constraint of these lawyers delay the cases, as hearing dates clash with other cases they handle or are overlooked. The request comes at a time when hundreds of Bangladeshis in Bahrain are in detention centres awaiting trials and sentencing, in prison serving sentences or facing deportation. Some are charged with serious crimes that may bring in long sentences and even death. A number of them have appealed against the sentences passed.
The scenario faced by the Bangladesh mission in Bahrain is representative of Bangladeshi missions in almost all destination countries of Bangladeshi workers in the Gulf states and in southeast Asian countries.
By ensuring basic rights and safety of workers deployed overseas, the labour attachés play a crucial role in effective migration governance. The principle of extraterritorial obligations obliges governments of the countries of origin to extend protection and services to their nationals who are abroad, to the extent they are commensurate with the laws of the host country. The labour attachés are the main points of contact between the migrants at destination and their country of origin. They have a critical role to play in arranging work visas and mediating employment related disputes for their citizens. In that context, the labour attachés must take up a proactive role in making employers and recruiters respect the rights accorded to migrant workers, including female workers.
As a party to the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Migrant Workers, Bangladesh is obliged to provide ‘adequate consular and other services that are necessary to meet the social, cultural and other needs of migrants workers and members of their families in the countries of employment’. It is also obligated to ‘to take measures not less favourably than those applied to nationals’ to ensure that the working and living conditions for the migrant workers are upheld to ‘standards of fitness, safety, health and principles of human dignity’.
One cannot emphasise more the fact that it falls on Bangladesh missions in the countries of employment, particularly those on the office of labour attachés to fulfil the obligations of the home government in upholding pledges of protection made in the country’s constitution and the laws as well as in fulfilling the country’s international treaty obligations.
In the following section, key findings of a recent RMMRU-RPC comparative study on ‘Institutionalising the Office of Labour Attaches: Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka’ have been presented. The study was conducted in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Malaysia in 2014 by respective country teams.
Over the years, Sri Lanka has carried out trials to ensure appointment of labour attachés who could best serve the migrant workforce overseas. It eventually decided to pursue a policy under which only those who had served with the Sri Lanka Bureau for Foreign Employment (the line agency of the government on migrant workers) for a stipulated period and gained experience would qualify to serve in the offices of labour attachés in the country’s missions. The appointee has to undergo a structured training run by the Diplomatic Training Centre of the ministry of foreign affairs in collaboration with the ministry of foreign employment promotion. An ‘Operational Manual for Foreign Sections of the Sri Lankan Diplomatic Missions’ has also been developed in 2013 with the assistance of the International Labour Organisation with the support of the Swiss authorities. It may be noted that the Philippines government also ensures that those recruited for labour attaché office had the prior experience of serving workers at home for at least two years before they are posted overseas.
In order to recruit right type of people to staff the office of the labour attachés, the Bangladesh government needs to seriously reconsider its current policy of allowing anyone within the administration to apply for labour attaché posts. A few overseas posts of labour attachés are reserved for certain services that are not even remotely connected with civil matters. The Sri Lankan and the Filipino model provide a good example for the government to emulate. It may be recalled that the standing committee for expatriates’ affairs and overseas employment of the last parliament unanimously endorsed RMMRU’s proposal to set up a separate cadre for those dealing with labour migration issue. Perhaps time has come to follow up on the matter in earnest.
The RMMRU-RPC study further noted that in order to ensure genuine employers recruit Sri Lankan workers, the missions are obliged to register recruiting agencies and establishments in advance. Their credentials and track record are assessed before those are registered. This mandatory requirement goes a long way in weeding out errant recruiters and employers. The Bangladesh government may wish to consider this policy for its missions in labour receiving countries.
A major concern expressed by the Bangladeshi workers to the research team was their lack of access and inability to express grievances to Bangladesh mission authorities. In this context, the experience of the Indian mission in Qatar provides important insights. The mission has a 24-hour hotline for workers to contact the embassy. It also actively collaborates with the Indian cultural centre, an association of the Indian expatriates in the country, in rendering services to the migrants. Most importantly, the embassy organises a monthly open day on a weekly holiday, in which the ambassador along with his retinue, attends and listens to problems and experiences of the migrant workers. Likewise, the Sri Lankan missions in the United Arab Emirates hold Friday clinics for migrants. These occasions not only provide a mechanism for grievance sharing but also act as a platform for facilitating networking and social gathering.
It is pertinent to mention that in order to ensure workers’ access to the mission on holidays, the Sri Lankan embassy in the United Arab Emirates has switched its weekly in order to keep open on Friday. This has provided relief for the workers as they do not need to take time off from their work to visit the embassy. The authorities concerned in Bangladesh may actively consider offering consular and other services to workers on holidays by switching holidays in the countries of employment.
Networking with local civil society organisations to a large extent is likely to reduce burden on the missions. However, the dominant mode of thinking among the Bangladesh mission staff is that such contacts may upset the host country. The experiences of Nepal, the Philippines and India inform that through forging effective collaboration with local organisations, missions can reach a large stock of migrants in rendering services such as legal aid. A migrant rights activist in Kuala Lumpur informed the research team that in the past, there had been occasions where proactive officers of the Bangladesh mission attended civil society programme on migrant workers even by taking leave from office, circumventing the unwritten office protocol.
The study team noted that there exists a degree of apathy among Bangladeshi workers about the services rendered by the Bangladeshi missions abroad. The above good practices provide interesting insights about how the missions can be brought closer to them.
There is little doubt that resources are a major constraint for labour attachés, particularly in countries where migrants are located in far-flung areas. In order to extend improved protection structure and services to the Bangladeshi migrant workers what is needed more than resources is effective leadership of the ministry of expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment, dynamism of the line the agency — the Bureau of Manpower of Employment and Training, recruitment of appropriate personnel as labour attachés, well-developed training programmes for those recruited and refreshment courses, innovative approach that shun red tapeism and bureaucratic approach, policy coherence among various agencies and ministries that deal with labour migration, and right motivation of those staffing the office of labour attachés.
The scenario faced by the Bangladesh mission in Bahrain is representative of Bangladeshi missions in almost all destination countries of Bangladeshi workers in the Gulf states and in southeast Asian countries.
By ensuring basic rights and safety of workers deployed overseas, the labour attachés play a crucial role in effective migration governance. The principle of extraterritorial obligations obliges governments of the countries of origin to extend protection and services to their nationals who are abroad, to the extent they are commensurate with the laws of the host country. The labour attachés are the main points of contact between the migrants at destination and their country of origin. They have a critical role to play in arranging work visas and mediating employment related disputes for their citizens. In that context, the labour attachés must take up a proactive role in making employers and recruiters respect the rights accorded to migrant workers, including female workers.
As a party to the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Migrant Workers, Bangladesh is obliged to provide ‘adequate consular and other services that are necessary to meet the social, cultural and other needs of migrants workers and members of their families in the countries of employment’. It is also obligated to ‘to take measures not less favourably than those applied to nationals’ to ensure that the working and living conditions for the migrant workers are upheld to ‘standards of fitness, safety, health and principles of human dignity’.
One cannot emphasise more the fact that it falls on Bangladesh missions in the countries of employment, particularly those on the office of labour attachés to fulfil the obligations of the home government in upholding pledges of protection made in the country’s constitution and the laws as well as in fulfilling the country’s international treaty obligations.
In the following section, key findings of a recent RMMRU-RPC comparative study on ‘Institutionalising the Office of Labour Attaches: Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka’ have been presented. The study was conducted in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Malaysia in 2014 by respective country teams.
Over the years, Sri Lanka has carried out trials to ensure appointment of labour attachés who could best serve the migrant workforce overseas. It eventually decided to pursue a policy under which only those who had served with the Sri Lanka Bureau for Foreign Employment (the line agency of the government on migrant workers) for a stipulated period and gained experience would qualify to serve in the offices of labour attachés in the country’s missions. The appointee has to undergo a structured training run by the Diplomatic Training Centre of the ministry of foreign affairs in collaboration with the ministry of foreign employment promotion. An ‘Operational Manual for Foreign Sections of the Sri Lankan Diplomatic Missions’ has also been developed in 2013 with the assistance of the International Labour Organisation with the support of the Swiss authorities. It may be noted that the Philippines government also ensures that those recruited for labour attaché office had the prior experience of serving workers at home for at least two years before they are posted overseas.
In order to recruit right type of people to staff the office of the labour attachés, the Bangladesh government needs to seriously reconsider its current policy of allowing anyone within the administration to apply for labour attaché posts. A few overseas posts of labour attachés are reserved for certain services that are not even remotely connected with civil matters. The Sri Lankan and the Filipino model provide a good example for the government to emulate. It may be recalled that the standing committee for expatriates’ affairs and overseas employment of the last parliament unanimously endorsed RMMRU’s proposal to set up a separate cadre for those dealing with labour migration issue. Perhaps time has come to follow up on the matter in earnest.
The RMMRU-RPC study further noted that in order to ensure genuine employers recruit Sri Lankan workers, the missions are obliged to register recruiting agencies and establishments in advance. Their credentials and track record are assessed before those are registered. This mandatory requirement goes a long way in weeding out errant recruiters and employers. The Bangladesh government may wish to consider this policy for its missions in labour receiving countries.
A major concern expressed by the Bangladeshi workers to the research team was their lack of access and inability to express grievances to Bangladesh mission authorities. In this context, the experience of the Indian mission in Qatar provides important insights. The mission has a 24-hour hotline for workers to contact the embassy. It also actively collaborates with the Indian cultural centre, an association of the Indian expatriates in the country, in rendering services to the migrants. Most importantly, the embassy organises a monthly open day on a weekly holiday, in which the ambassador along with his retinue, attends and listens to problems and experiences of the migrant workers. Likewise, the Sri Lankan missions in the United Arab Emirates hold Friday clinics for migrants. These occasions not only provide a mechanism for grievance sharing but also act as a platform for facilitating networking and social gathering.
It is pertinent to mention that in order to ensure workers’ access to the mission on holidays, the Sri Lankan embassy in the United Arab Emirates has switched its weekly in order to keep open on Friday. This has provided relief for the workers as they do not need to take time off from their work to visit the embassy. The authorities concerned in Bangladesh may actively consider offering consular and other services to workers on holidays by switching holidays in the countries of employment.
Networking with local civil society organisations to a large extent is likely to reduce burden on the missions. However, the dominant mode of thinking among the Bangladesh mission staff is that such contacts may upset the host country. The experiences of Nepal, the Philippines and India inform that through forging effective collaboration with local organisations, missions can reach a large stock of migrants in rendering services such as legal aid. A migrant rights activist in Kuala Lumpur informed the research team that in the past, there had been occasions where proactive officers of the Bangladesh mission attended civil society programme on migrant workers even by taking leave from office, circumventing the unwritten office protocol.
The study team noted that there exists a degree of apathy among Bangladeshi workers about the services rendered by the Bangladeshi missions abroad. The above good practices provide interesting insights about how the missions can be brought closer to them.
There is little doubt that resources are a major constraint for labour attachés, particularly in countries where migrants are located in far-flung areas. In order to extend improved protection structure and services to the Bangladeshi migrant workers what is needed more than resources is effective leadership of the ministry of expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment, dynamism of the line the agency — the Bureau of Manpower of Employment and Training, recruitment of appropriate personnel as labour attachés, well-developed training programmes for those recruited and refreshment courses, innovative approach that shun red tapeism and bureaucratic approach, policy coherence among various agencies and ministries that deal with labour migration, and right motivation of those staffing the office of labour attachés.
CR Abrar teaches International Relations at the University of Dhaka. He writes on migration and rights issues.
Publish : The Daily Newage
Date: 18/12/2015