Law event
Advocating for the rights of the migrant workers
Sultana Razia
In recent years migration has made and is making its way steadily to the top of the international affairs agenda, and the issue has been prioritised by most of the governments because the number of those from the underdeveloped countries who migrate for better economic prospects has grown immensely over the last few decades.
A few organisations in Bangladesh are working on migrant workers and their rights, and arranging workshop for advocating the rights of the migrant workers is indeed a very effective approach to deal with this issue. Recently a workshop of this nature was jointly held by Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), Welfare Association of the Repatriated Bangladeshi Employees (WARBE), and Migrant Forum Asia (MFA) in Dhaka (August 15- 19). Participants from five different countries shared their experiences and updated themselves about humanitarian laws and recent developments on migrant issues. Experts from different countries shared their tactics, simplified the laws and way of advocating on this issue. The workshop was guided with the help of Diplomacy Training Programme (DTP) of the University of New South Wales.
The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families was approved on 18 December 1990 by the UN General Assembly and became the most comprehensive international tool promoting the human rights of migrants. The strength of the Convention lies in enabling all those persons, who qualify as migrant workers under its provisions, to enjoy their human rights regardless of their legal status and it protects both documented and undocumented workers. Nevertheless, States undertake to ensure that the migrants whose rights have been violated may seek judicial remedy.
From 1 July 2003, it came into force as the seventh basic human rights instrument of the United Nations. Though Bangladesh is a signatory to this convention but the absence of ratification or accession of the treaty makes the situation a bit complex. Especially in case of undocumented workers the sufferings are immense.
In the closing ceremony of the said workshop, Dr. Tasneem Siddiqui, chair of the session, said that according to ILO there were over 80 million workers world-wide, of whom 27 per cent were in Asia. Some two million Asian workers leave every year on contract to work in other countries within and outside the region.
Dr. CR Abrar, executive director of RMMRU, University of Dhaka informed that though our law commission recommended its ratification but the implementation process has not started yet.
Syed Saiful Haque, chairman of WARBE, thanked the participants for their effort and showing interest in the mater. He handed over the certificates to the participants for the successful conducting of the workshop.
The chief guest of the closing session Justice Syed Reefat Ahmed said the government should establish without any undue delay a framework to protect human rights and orderly movement of migrant workers.
-From Law Desk.
