‘One-stop service for female migrant workers’

A fully-functional "one-stop service centre" should be created to provide all kinds of support and information to female migrant workers regarding their safe migration, said speakers during an online dialogue yesterday.

Besides, steps should be taken to provide employment contracts that uphold different rights for their benefit and to ensure accountability of recruiting authorities, they said.

WARBE Development Foundation, CARE Bangladesh and The Daily Star jointly organised the dialogue titled "Women Migration with the Relevant Government Officials, CSOs (civil society organisations) and Stakeholders".

Mahjabeen Khaled, secretary general of Bangladesh Parliamentarians Caucus on Migration and Development (BPCMD), said the service centre should provide all kinds of services for female migrant workers.

The centre will not only focus on the workers' departure, job and return home, but there will be processes to provide information regarding mental stress, psychological and physical conditions and incidents of abuse, she said.

Such a centre is functional in the Philippines and several other labour-sending countries, said WARBE Chairperson Syed Saiful Haque.

The centre can act as a platform for workers to get sufficient information before going abroad and can be used to report incidents of abuse after returning, he said.

Addressing as chief guest, reserved seat lawmaker and BPCMD member Aroma Dutta said action should be taken against unscrupulous syndicates and intermediaries to stop exploitation of female migrant workers.

She blamed intermediaries in the migration sector for the exploitation.

Whether employment contracts given to the workers incorporate their due rights should be looked into, said UN Women Programme Analyst Tapati Saha.

She stressed enhancing the monitoring system to ensure ideal employment contracts.

Presenting a keynote paper, migration expert Riaz Uddin Khan said many of these workers are provided with job contracts at the last moment of their departure. As a result, they are left with little choice.

Addressing as special guest, Manusher Jonno Foundation Executive Director Shaheen Anam said female migrant workers' safety during departure, return, and at work is their right.

She said while such workers with skills training can have some sort of bargaining power, the same workers without training can be more vulnerable to exploitation.

If a woman-friendly migration system is not developed, the sector may see a decline in the number of female workers in the future, she added.

Keraniganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer Amit Debnath stressed on creating a dedicated "institutional structure" at upazila level to work on woman migration.

Moderated by WARBE Director Jasiya Khatoon, the programme was addressed, among others, by Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training Director Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan; CARE Bangladesh Programme Manager Mostafa Sorower; ICMPD Bangladesh Country Coordinator Ikram Hossain; journalist Arafat Ara; and BPCMD Member and lawmaker Adiba Anjum Mita.