Introductory dialogue between the Parliamentarians Caucus on Migration and Development and the BAIRA on Safe, Orderly & Regular Migration

The introductory dialogue between the Parliamentarians Caucus on Migration and Development and the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies on Safe, Orderly, Regular Migration was held at the BAIRA conference room on Wednesday.

Chairman of Parliamentarians Caucus on Migration and Development Israfil Alam MP who spoke at the dialogue as the chief guest urged the BAIRA leaders to keep the list of 1,400 members posted on its website with performance records so that the migrant workers, the main target groups, could choose better recruiting agencies to get services for migration. Israfil Alam requested all of the registered recruiting agencies to provide ID cards to their sub-agents under specific codes of conducts. ‘I think that such system can protect migrant workers from exploitation of the middlemen and help upholding reputation of the recruiting agencies,’ he said.

Members of the Parliamentarians Caucus on Migration and Development and lawmakers Hosne Ara Lutfa Dalia MP, Altaf Ali MP and Suhrab Uddin MP were also present at the introductory dialogue with BAIRA.

BAIRA resident Benjir Ahmed, who presided over meeting, said that the recruiting agencies having licenses from the government could never traffic workers so they should not be harassed by law enforcing agencies. Benjir Ahmed, a former MP, urged the government to select Commercially Important Persons (CIP) from the BAIRA members considering their contribution to the national economy.

BAIRA secretary general Ruhul Amin requested the government to cancel the system of attestation of job visas by the labour attaches saying that the system was backdated and computerized digital system could now check the authenticity of the job visas.

WARBE development Foundation chairman Syed Saiful Haque lauded the significant role of recruiting agencies which sent more than one crore workers abroad. He urged the BAIRA leaders to come up with positive attitudes and play due role in ensuring safe, orderly and regular migration from Bangladesh.

WARBE Development Foundation secretary general Faruque Ahmed and BAIRA joint secretary general Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, representatives of British Council’ PROKAS programme Tanvir Mahmud and Saleha Khatun among other leaders were present at the dialogue.